Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Massachusetts law firm

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Sep 6, 2024, at 12:28 PM, Carol Agate <carolagate [at] gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Does anyone have a law firm to either recommend or warn against in the Boston 
> area?

I don’t know anything about MA but I would suggest that it has more to do with 
the sensibilities of an individual person, not the firm.

Our most successful interactions have been those in which we have been able to 
explain our wants and needs, not just asking what is the law. The law is many 
things and can be read or applied in many ways. You need to know what the usual 
or standard applications and results are but that doesn’t have to control your 
future.

Where would cohousing be today if groups had started with the attitude "we can 
only do this because only this has been tested in court"?

In a recent meeting, the lawyer who 3/4 understand us, said tell me what 
problem you want to solve, instead of asking can we do this or that. 

He could say, “Yes you can do that" but unless he understands the problem, he 
can’t give us his best advice. There may be another solution, and the problem 
may not actually be a problem at all.

Our first lawyer was very good at listening to us and I think it helped that 
she spent at least 3 sessions with all of us taking questions and responding. 
In 2000 many of us had survived the 1960s and were dubious about any contact 
with lawyers so these were very helpful in building trust and understanding 
each other. 

When she retired, one thing her replacement said that was encouraging to us was 
that he was not litigious. It is preferable to just go talk to people. Of 
course, he worked with regular condos in which pretty much nothing gets 
discussed until a lawsuit is filed so his everyday reference is what can you 
win in court. In conversations with him, I find that I have to get past that to 
the real issue.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org