Scott Horenstein moved to Vancouver when he was two years old and has been practicing family law here for decades. His firm, aptly named The Scott Horenstein Law Firm, came about in 1999 after Scott and his brother, Steve Horenstein, decided to amicably split their original law practice into separate areas of expertise – one for family and divorce, and the other for commercial and real estate.
Today, The Scott Horenstein Law Firm is still going strong in the same building and on the same floor of the downtown Vancouver office it has occupied since the late ‘90s.
“I grew up here,” said Horenstein. “I live a mile from where I grew up and my office isn’t far either.”
When it comes to forming ties in the family and divorce law world, Horenstein continues to gain new clients from referrals and loyal clientele. In addition, he said, it helps that the demand for family law has remained consistent over the years, unlike some other areas of practice.
“During the recession, real estate, land-use and business law seemed to take a hit,” Horenstein said. “Honestly though, in my rule of law, it didn’t change much during the recession and it didn’t change much afterward.”
Horenstein works full-time with another lawyer working for him part-time. He also employs two legal assistants and his wife serves as a part-time officer manager.
“It’s been pretty consistent for the last five years or so,” he said. “Personally, that’s how I like it so I’ve got the personal touch with the clients.”
That consistency has given Horenstein time to focus on other business challenges, such as keeping family and divorce law economically feasible for clients. The biggest shift Horenstein said that he’s seen over the years is practicing far more mediation and arbitration than litigation, due to cost.
“The biggest cost of litigation is personality driven by either the lawyers or the parties,” he said. “More so by the parties, but if any one of the four wants to make life more difficult, they can.”
Horenstein thinks the shift to Alternative Dispute Resolution is going to make divorce proceedings easier on all parties. He stressed that finances only add to an already difficult divorce situation, so this option is less emotionally entangling and tends to bring a quicker resolution to often difficult, costly and drawn-out divorce hearings.
Another recent trend stems from the rise of the Internet. Horenstein said he regularly sees clients armed with carefully researched information from the World Wide Web, but it’s not always foolproof.
“That information is certainly out there more than it was before Google and the computer age,” he said, “but a lot of times people come in with information that is wrong or not accurate.”
That’s part of the reason why Horenstein has been involved in a two-year-long project updating his mentor’s three-volume book on family law in Washington. It originally came out in 1997 and will be available in print and online. The book is called “Family and Community Property Law Handbook.”
However, some things in law never change, especially in divorce law. Horenstein relies on his time-tested philosophy in dealing with the hardest part of family and divorce law: managing the emotions of clients.
“If I’m going to help my client, I have to understand what the other side is thinking and what they’re going through,” he explained. “It doesn’t do me any good if I’m not going to understand the other side.”
Editor’s note: The Scott Horenstein Law Firm is a member of the Vancouver Business Journal’s Strategic Partners Program. To learn more about the program, contact Irene Pettengill at 360.448.6013.
