Last month, for the first time, we hosted one of our monthly divorce seminars during our lunch hour. For the past 30+ years we have been teaching monthly divorce seminars about what Virginia women need to know, mostly on the Second Saturday of the month. Over time, we expanded our offering to include a Third Tuesday evening seminar, for anyone who was working or otherwise occupied on weekends and unable to attend.
Then the pandemic hit. Before 2020, we always taught our seminars live and in person – with an attorney, standing at a lectern, and giving the seminar in person.
It was great! We loved that we could feed off of the audience, answer their questions in real time, and have conversations about the real life decisions that face Virginia women confronting divorce and custody cases. But, even then, we had to admit, a live seminar was kind of a tough thing.
Not for us. But for the women who wanted to attend.
Were we losing out on people who genuinely wanted – or needed – the material we taught, but they were afraid to show up somewhere in person? Were they unable or unwilling? Were they afraid they’d be followed? Were they afraid they’d be recognized? Would showing their faces in public be something that kept people away? We started to feel like that was the case.
And, anyway, there was a pandemic. It was as good a time as any to try something new, so we did. We pivoted to an all online Zoom-based webinar format. We kept the live attorney, and we still encouraged questions – though no attendees names or faces are ever shown on screen. Instead, the questions from the audience come in text form, to the presenter only, who reads the questions to the audience and gives an answer.
It’s been a great experience, but we still wondered whether we could go further. We couldn’t help but wonder if timing was also an issue. When a family friend of mine got divorced, she said to me that she was dying to see Sheera Herrell present a seminar – but she just didn’t see how, on a Saturday morning or a Tuesday night, she could find a time where her husband wouldn’t just walk in.
Though there’s certainly no reason you couldn’t attend a seminar on your phone in the car, on an iPad in your room with the door locked, or literally anywhere you had a wifi connection (like, maybe, in a Starbucks with your ear buds in?), there are all sorts of reasons why people find times and dates difficult.
We started to wonder… Would more people benefit from a lunchtime seminar on a weekday? You could eat your lunch at your desk – or at your kitchen table, while your husband would be away for sure – or in the Target parking lot on your lunch hour, and still attend a divorce webinar for women only.
So, last month we kicked it off. It seemed like it was pretty successful; we had a solid number of women attend, and a good number of questions from the crowd. It’s still new, though, so we wanted to make sure we kept sharing the information so that anyone who might benefit would be able to attend.
It’s the same seminar; what every Virginia woman needs to know about divorce. It’s just a new time. Through the end of the year, I’ll be teaching each lunch time seminar; and the rest of the attorneys will be rotating through for the Second Saturday and Third Tuesday dates.
The divorce seminar is a great way to begin to gather information about your rights and entitlements under the law. It’s important that you have an idea of the Virginia divorce process, how the courts work, and how cases in the Commonwealth are usually resolved. It’s a good idea, too, to have that perspective as you go into your divorce, so that you don’t make emotionally-charged or trauma-driven decisions that end up serving you poorly in the long run.
Having a clear idea of your goals in the divorce process is going to go a long way towards helping you achieve them. But you probably can’t do it all on your own!
You can request a free copy of our divorce or our custody book (or our military divorce book if you or your soon-to-be ex is an active duty or retired military service member) on our website, but don’t forget to get more information about upcoming seminars. It may be that you’re not quite ready for a consultation at this stage, but you could still benefit from having an opportunity to ask the questions that are keeping you up at night.
I always advise against Googling for answers; you never know where or who is answering your question. In our books, on our website, and in our seminars, all of the content we create and the information we provide comes straight from licensed, experienced, family law attorneys dedicated to representing women exclusively in family law cases.
For more information, to schedule a consultation, or to register for a seminar, give our office a call at 757-425-5200 or visit our website at hoflaw.com.