Late last month, two of our attorneys spent four days in Chicago, IL doing something most clients never picture a lawyer doing. They sat through working sessions, took on problems in small groups, and compared notes with family lawyers from across the country.

Diana C. Lewis and Savanna Kimble Earles attended the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers' 2026 Institute for Family Law Associates, held September 25 through 28. The Institute offers two tracks. Diana attended the Advanced Program, which is reserved for attorneys who have already first-chaired cases, and Savanna attended the Introductory Program. Every attendee must be sponsored by a Fellow of the Academy, and ours were sponsored Ben Stevens, an AAML Fellow and Past National President.

Last weekend, Krystal L. Watson was in Mount Pleasant, SC for the South Carolina Black Lawyers Association's 24th Annual Conference, two days of continuing legal education, leadership programming, and time with lawyers and judges from across the state. Krystal, who brings nearly two decades of courtroom experience to our team, serves as the 7th Circuit Representative for SCBLA.

Why should any of that matter to someone with a custody case?

Because family law does not hold still. Statutes get amended. The appellate courts decide new cases. And the way families actually live changes faster than either one.

Parents work remotely until the day the office calls them back. Nine-year-olds carry phones. Location-sharing apps settle arguments and start new ones. A parenting plan that was perfectly sound ten years ago can leave a family today fighting about things nobody thought to write down.

A lawyer who stops training is practicing the law, and the family life, of some earlier year.

Learning what travels and what does not

The most valuable part of the Institute was not the lectures. It was the small groups. The AAML deliberately pairs each attendee with a mentor from a different state, which means our attorneys spent four days explaining out loud why South Carolina does things the way it does.

That is harder than it sounds. South Carolina still grants divorces on fault grounds, including adultery, physical cruelty, and habitual drunkenness, alongside the one-year separation ground. A lawyer from a no-fault state hears that and starts asking questions. Answering them well requires knowing your own state's law cold.

One observation from Chicago was that there is an art to sorting national ideas into the ones that work in a South Carolina Family Court and the ones that do not. It is the difference between importing a good idea and importing a problem.

What our clients will notice

The ideas that do travel, we are putting to work. Our attorneys debriefed the whole office the week they returned, and several changes came straight out of that meeting:

• Providing a color-coded calendar of the parenting schedule running two years out, so nobody has to decode the holiday paragraph in December.
• Preparing proposed parenting plans that anticipate real life: who picks up a sick child on an exchange day, what happens when a remote-working parent is ordered back to the office, how far a right of first refusal reaches, and when children get social media.
• Asking clients at the beginning of a case what the other side is likely to say about them, both what is true and what is not, so htat we prepare for it then rather than hearing about it on the eve of a hearing.
• Developing better discovery habits, with regular checks to track which documents are owed to/from the opposing party.

None of those is dramatic. All of them are the sort of thing a client feels without ever seeing: fewer surprises, fewer confused phone calls after the order is signed, and a parenting plan that holds up when the family's life changes.

Assertive, not aggressive

One idea came back from Chicago that we already practice but had never phrased quite so neatly. "Good family lawyers are assertive, not aggressive." This includes skills like answering the substance of a hostile letter and ignoring the rest and describing behavior in court and letting the judge draw the conclusion, rather than reaching for labels. It is a different approach, but in our experience it is the more persuasive one.

That matters most in the cases that never see a courtroom. Most divorces resolve by agreement, and the agreements that last are negotiated by lawyers who are prepared, current, and calm.

The work no one bills for

Continuing education does not show up on an invoice. 4-5 days in Chicago, 2-3 days in Mount Pleasant, and time spent debriefing the office are examples of ways our attorneys strive to improve, not simply spending time on any one client's case but investing time that will benefit all of them.

We are proud of Diana, Savanna, and Krystal for the work they put in, and we commend them for the devotion to the practice of law. We are also grateful to the AAML, SCBLA, their leadership, and their members for providing such high level programming.

Stevens Family Law, LLC is devoted exclusively to family law, and our attorneys handle divorce, custody, and support matters in Family Courts across South Carolina. If you would like a team that keeps learning on your side of the table, we would be glad to hear about your situation. You can reach our office at (864) 598-9172 or request a consultation.

This article is general information, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Program descriptions are drawn from the sponsoring organizations' published event materials.