About Kate W.
Kate W. Haakonsen constructed a legal career that began in lecture rooms and moved shortly into partnership. She earned a B.A. from Ursinus College in 1975 and a J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1978. Those degrees set the stage for many years of work in family law, facilitated negotiation and collaborative practice.
She entered personal practice soon following law school as a partner at Peck Haakonsen & McChristian. Over the next 20 years she modified firm affiliations because the enterprise of law advanced. In 1990 she joined Gussak, Jacobson, Silver & McChristian as a companion. By 1995 she had turn out to be a senior partner at Brown Paindiris & Scott LLP. Those roles mirror a steady motion into management positions at firms that handled household law things and opportunity dispute resolution.
Haakonsen’s expert interests pushed her toward non-adversarial approaches to family conflict. She has been a member of the Connecticut Council for Non-Adversarial Divorce since its founding in 1995. She joined the Connecticut Collaborative Divorce Group in 2004 and served as its treasurer. She is lively in both state and international collaborative organizations, holding memberships in Connecticut Collaborative Professionals since 2009 and the International Association of Collaborative Professionals since 2006. In 2014 she further an advanced mediator affiliation through the Academy of Professional Family Mediators.
Her involvement in bar associations runs deep. Haakonsen has been a member of the Connecticut Bar Association since 1978 and has served as chair of its Family Section. She has additionally been lively within the Hartford County Bar Association since 1978 and has served on its board. Those positions positioned her in the center of policy conversations about household regulation practice and court processes at the county and state level.
Colleagues and clients have recognized her for a realistic approach to resolving disputes. She has spent so much of her profession assisting families think about alternatives past litigation, whether or not thru mediation, collaborative divorce or negotiated resolutions. She is relaxed in court when cases require it, and she routinely supports parties prepare for resolution meetings and mediated sessions.
She keeps a Hartford office and a primary office and continues to engage in mediation and collaborative practice. Her recent practice focuses on family regulation matters handled through facilitated negotiation and collaborative processes.
