Practice Management

Third Wave style lawyers are nothing but innovative when it comes segregating out and developing what we like to call the Jiffy Lube model for the practice of law.  What sliver of legal business can be carved out, that you can do yourself, and which is being neglected to some extent by the majority of practitioners?  And man, if it is an area in which the client already has an established attorney, you do not have to necessarily meet face to face with the client, and there is not much in court work, that is all the better.  With modern, cheap tech you can work from anywhere to do your work.



In this regard, my interest was peaked when I ran across Texas QDRO Lawyer published by W. Stephen Hernsberger in Austin, Texas.  He deals with what are known as qualified domestic relations orders.  They sometimes have other names if dealing with military, government and other types of retirement vehicles.

Divorces are divorces, whether they are among rich or poor people, angry or calm people, or satisfied or dissatisfied people.  But, if the division of property in a divorce involves a spouses retirement account or funds, most often a QDRO comes into play.  It is not enough that the divorce court divides the retirement account by agreement or not by agreement.  The account is NOT divided unless it is done by the plan administrator of the retirement account.  Or, at least that is as far as I understand the concept.  This can be tricky, and for most divorce attorneys it can be a malpractice trap as many QDROs are never calculated, drafted, submitted, not approved by the plan administer (much less pre-approved by the plan administrator), or there is no follow up.  Someone is going to eventually retire, or reach retirement age or pass away and the ex-spouse is going to go looking for his or her portion of the retirement, and most often they are not going to like what they find out.  Especially if you are an attorney who does not limit his or her practice to divorce issues, you really do not want to be old and retired yourself, long after your mal-practice coverage has run out, and then have some former client coming to you with their hand held out.  Yet, this is probably a powder keg waiting to happen.

W. Stephen Hernsberger is a former Associate Judge of Family Court in El Paso, Texas.  For a $400.00 fee he will take over just the QDRO portion of the divorce.  QDROs are all he does.  He gathers all of the necessary information to draft the QDRO, he gets the QDRO drafted both to the satisfaction of the court and the plan administrator, he gets the QDRO approved by both, and he follows through.

The QDRO dilemma exists in every state.  I am sure that Mr. Hernsberger is not the only one that does this type of limited work.  But, it is an example of ingenuity on the part of one lawyer.