Antique marriage certificates and wedding pictures might not be what you’d want to see lining the walls of your divorce lawyer’s office, but Lynne Z. Gold-Bikin says her collection is not intended to rebuke her clients.
“My sense is that it gives a feeling of thinking twice about what you’re doing before the divorce,” says the Norristown, Pa., attorney. “It’s a serious step. You’re giving up a serious amount of history with your spouse.
“Besides, it happens to be my hobby. I’m a great believer in marriage.”
Gold-Bikin is the chair-elect for the American Bar Association’s Family Law section for 1994-1995. During her tenure she hopes to launch several initiatives, including the development of a pilot high school curriculum to expose teens to the realities of marriage and divorce.
“We’ll show them a divorce trial, how to negotiate household budgets, job relocation, things that are real in a marriage,” says Gold-Bikin, who has practiced family law for 17 years. “These are the kinds of things that kids don’t think about or experience.”
