The goal of Mr. Schlichting is to assist individuals and businesses by advising and counseling them, providing them with answers to their legal questions, presenting alternative choices and the consequences of those choices, implementing their choices, and  resolving their legal matters.  He attempts to resolve legal matters as quickly as possible by negotiation, mediation and settlement or, if resolution by those methods is not possible, to try those cases vigorously.

Mr. Schlichting provides legal services in the traditional sense.  He has provided more than 50,000 hours of legal services in the following areas:   

Traditional 
Business Law

Business law includes all aspects of conducting business in various forms, whether as an individual, partnership, corporation, limited liability company, cooperative or a nonprofit entity.  It requires a knowledge of all aspects of these legal entities as well as real estate, personal property and security interests.

Mr. Schlichting has organized numerous business entities for businesses, professionals, farmers and individuals.  He has represented buyers and sellers in the sale and purchase of restaurants, agricultural businesses, tool and die manufacturers, chemical dependency treatment centers, trade businesses, hospitals and other businesses.  He has drafted buy-sell agreements for shareholders, partners and owners of limited liability companies.  He has prepared employment agreements for executives.  He has drafted other business contracts and employment agreements for corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships, nonprofit entities, and cooperatives.

Real Estate Law

Mr. Schlichting has prepared hundreds of title opinions, represented buyers and sellers in buying and selling golf courses, restaurants, trade businesses, medical and dental practices,  worked with lenders on multimillion dollar loans and mortgages, registered the title to real estate and, in general, been involved in all areas of real estate law.  He has registered the title to numerous parcels of real estate and completed Registered Land Surveys.

Wills, Trusts, Probate and Estate Planning Law

This area of the law involves the transfer of property at death or during one's lifetime or preserving a person's property.  After reviewing a person's circumstances and wishes, Mr. Schlichting makes recommendations and then works with the person in implementing the choices the person makes using one or more documents including wills, trusts, powers of attorney, health care directives, guardianships and conservatorships.

This area of the law also includes assisting in the transfer of property at death and has more emotional aspects than real estate, since it involves one's last wishes and involves family.  In addition to knowing wills and trusts, a knowledge of real estate, business law, and family law is necessary for properly advising individuals.
 
Mr. Schlichting has worked with many individuals on estate planning issues, probated many estates, established guardianships and conservatorships, and been involved in will contests.

Family Law

Family law includes all relationships among family members.  It usually involves the breakup of a marriage and the issues of dividing up real and personal property, debts, spousal maintenance, and custody of and parenting time with children.
 
Family law matters involve some of the more difficult and complex legal issues, since they involve all aspects of an individual's life - the breakdown of a relationship, property division and  children - and it is has more emotional components than other areas of the law.  Family law requires knowing real estate, personal property, business, pensions, wills and trusts, as well as matters involving children.

Mr. Schlichting has represented more than 500 individuals in family law matters. In the early years of Mr. Schlichting's legal career many of these cases were tried.  In the last several years most of these cases have settled through mediation.  He has tried more than 100 family law cases. He has obtained custody in more than 95 percent of the contested custody trials.  In the past several years in most trials, he has been awarded attorney fees from the opposing party for their bad conduct during the litigation.

Mr. Schlichting focuses on complex financial and custody cases and represents business people, professionals and farmers.  

Non-Traditional
Mediation 

In mediation a neutral third party (mediator) facilitates communication between parties to resolve their dispute.  The parties present the facts and law that support their respective positions and the mediator assists them in reaching an agreement.  The goal is to provide each party with the facts and a clear understanding of the other party's position and then reach an agreement.  A mediator does not make a decision for the parties.  The parties may have attorneys who may be present during mediation.

To enhance his skills in mediating disputes, Mr. Schlichting has completed the 40-hour Minnesota Supreme Court required course on mediation techniques and is a qualified Rule 114 neutral.

Collaborative Law

Collaborative law is a way of practicing law where both parties have an attorney and the parties and their attorneys work on resolving their disputes by agreement, which is submitted to the appropriate court for approval rather than litigation. 

The parties and their respective attorneys sign an agreement that they will not use the attorneys they use in the collaborative law process if they decide to go to court.  By doing this, the threat of litigation is substantially removed and they focus on reaching a decision rather than preparing for trial. 

This process can involve neutral experts, such as financial professionals, psychologists, child specialists, appraisers, and any other expert that may help reach an agreement.

This process requires a full and fair disclosure of all relevant information by each party.  Collaborative law works because it allows parties in a dissolution process to obtain advice and support from highly trained professionals who are trained to assist their clients in all aspects of the process that keeps the ultimate control in their hands, and avoids the risks of the adversarial process.  This process requires each party to participate in identifying what is important to them, and balancing that with what is important to their spouse.

The collaborative law process usually takes less time and is less expensive than litigation.  On average, a family law matter that is contested will take one to one and one-half years to get to trial and cost each party between $10,000 and $25,000.  A family law matter that uses the collaborative law process usually takes two to five months and costs between $2,000 and $5,000.  In other disputes there will be similar cost savings.