Fall 2026 Update from Jim Siemens

Siemens Family Law Group hosted a July 4th bike ride and lunch fundraiser to benefit Pisgah Legal Services.

2026 has been full of good things.

This summer I balanced lawyering, fishing, teaching and cycling, while doing my best to remain curious as a lawyer and leader entering my fourth decade of practice.

Fishing from Ft. Fisher and around Bald Head was great this year. I learned a new topwater technique called “walking the dog,” which makes the lure zig and zag across the surface and, when everything comes together, causes a redfish to blow up and take the bait. I spent a couple of days focused on learning that one small skill—working the lure along grass lines over pristine water. Catching a redfish was the occasional bonus.

Closer to home, I spent a day in June teaching at the Mediation Center’s Family Financial Mediation Training. My topic was how to handle the specter of impasse as a family financial mediator, and I drew on the work of Daniel Kahneman.

Judge Barrett introduced me to Thinking, Fast and Slow at a mediation training several years ago. That book got me hooked on Kahneman’s work in behavioral economics and, in particular, on how people actually make decisions.

Kahneman teaches that none of us is entirely rational: lawyers probably least of all. We can be overconfident in our advocacy while simultaneously averse to risk and loss. We come on strong as truth seekers. We want justice for our clients, and we honestly believe we can achieve it. Then we confront all the facts, an uncertain future, and decision makers who may not see things our way. Suddenly, risk looks different.

It’s a complicated story. Mediation helps us straighten out the narrative.

I had fun coaching lawyers learning to become mediators. It’s an awkward switch from zealous advocate to neutral. I watched new mediators try not to overstep while maintaining the flow of a negotiation and simultaneously holding all the Dispute Resolution Commission rules in their heads.

I reminded these brave souls that their superpower may be found in their unfamiliarity to the participants. In my experience, reactive devaluation doesn’t apply to the neutral in the same way it does to the opposing party or opposing counsel. A mediator willing to step into the gap can sometimes relay information more effectively precisely because the mediator isn’t mired in either side’s narrative.

I like serving as a mediator. And I like the mediation process. I feel lucky to have practiced in Buncombe County, where mediation has been so well developed, encouraged and readily used. The Mediation Center is a remarkable resource for Western North Carolina, and I’ll happily teach again next year if they’ll have me.

July 4th came next. Our firm partnered with the Downtown Asheville Racing Club and our neighbors at the Chop Shop to host a charity bike ride benefiting Pisgah Legal Services. I rode the full course this year, which put me at the base of Webb Cove around hour three, in the hottest part of the day. Later, recovering over lunch at the Chop Shop, I learned more about the challenge of operating Pisgah Legal Services without IOLTA funding.

At the end of July, David Hudson and I helped organize the Family Law Specialist Conference in Asheville. Over a couple of days at the Biltmore Estate, an impressive group of speakers explored ways to resolve cases without a full-blown trial.

I confess that I thought the theme sounded a little dull when it was first proposed. I ended up mesmerized by Irene King’s presentation on Collaborative Law and honored to present on arbitration with the Honorable Gary S. Cash. North Carolina’s Collaborative Law Act and Family Law Arbitration Act are elegant pieces of legislation. Our state was among the first to codify both approaches, and our laws have served as models for others.

Laura Mahr of Conscious Legal Minds spoke about strategies for regulating the nervous system—for lawyers as well as their clients. She brought remarkable energy to a late-afternoon session and reinforced something I increasingly believe: better decisions usually require some distance from our immediate emotional reactions.

Perry Fisher of Fisher Stark gave a considerably less soothing presentation on cybersecurity. His talk was terrifying enough to prompt us to review our cybersecurity practices, including insurance coverage, and to institute monthly cybersecurity training at the firm.

Jim Siemens serving on a panel this summer.

All of that leaves me celebrating fall and looking toward 2027.

In September, I launched Insight Divorce Coach, a subscription service and course for people contemplating divorce or entering the divorce process. Kahneman’s influence shows up there, too. Divorce presents an almost perfect environment for fast, emotional and instinctive thinking. The challenge is learning to recognize those reactions without automatically acting on them, creating enough space for the slower and more deliberate thinking that difficult decisions deserve.

More on that project in a future post.

My law practice will evolve as well. In 2027, I plan to focus more of my work on premarital and postmarital agreements and prelitigation resolutions, while continuing to develop my ADR practice through mediation, collaborative law and arbitration. I also hope to serve more frequently as a mediator and arbitrator.

After more than thirty years of practicing law, I find myself increasingly interested not in doing more things, but in getting better at the things I believe matter most: helping people make good decisions, resolving conflict where possible, and finding sensible ways through difficult situations.

Maybe that is what tied this summer together for me.

Whether learning to make a fishing lure zig and zag along a grass line, watching a new mediator find the confidence to step into the gap, or reconsidering how I want to practice law in my fourth decade, I keep being reminded of the value of becoming a beginner again.

There is still a lot to learn.

And every now and then, a redfish blows up on the lure.

Jim Siemens, gone fishin’