J. Richard Kulerski is a veteran divorce lawyer with forty-plus years of courtroom experience. He is a partner in the divorce law firm of Kulerski and Cornelison. Richard is a staunch advocate of the settlement/non-court approach to divorce.
He is a seasoned divorce trial lawyer, a Harvard Law-trained mediator and settlement negotiator, a published author, speaker, and divorce negotiation coach.
Admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States.
Memberships and Distinctions (Past and Present)
- 2014 Appointment to the Circuit Court of Cook County, IL – Domestic Relations Division – approved judges’ referral list of trained divorce law financial mediators.
- Advanced Practitioner Member (highest mediator ranking in the United States) – Family Section – Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR)
- Author – 2020 book A Divorce Lawyer’s Best Advice – What It Really Takes to Persuade Your Spouse to Settle Out of Court
- CHICAGO TRIBUNE – Co-Editor of CHICAGO DIVORCE: THE WAY WE WAR, Chicago Now blog.
- Fox TV Chicago 32 – law firm partners, J. Richard Kulerski and Kari Cornelison, are the exclusive DuPage County and Cook counties ASK THE EXPERTS for divorce law and divorce mediation.
- ABC TV-Channel 7 – Kulerski & Cornelison – the exclusive ABC TV-Channel 7 I Need Advice Now Divorce Law Advisor for DuPage County, IL.
- Huffington Post – Blog Brief Contributor – Both J. Richard Kulerski and law partner Kari L. Cornelison are authorized HuffingtonPost.com bloggers whose post briefs appear regularly in the Huffington Post’s Life and Style – Divorce section.
- Fellow – Collaborative Law Institute of Illinois
- Fellow – International Academy of Collaborative Professionals
- Member – The Mediation Council of Illinois – Member Board of Directors
- Weekly columnist – Chicago Cooperative Divorce Law Examiner – Examiner.com
- Frequent radio talk show guest on the subject of the civilized approach to divorce
- Co-founder – Illinois Cooperative Divorce Lawyers
- Published author and speaker – Bar Association presentations articles on collaborative divorce law and mediation
- Published author – professional internet articles on cooperative divorce law and the non-court/settlement approach to divorce
- Premium Member – Cutting Edge Lawyer – CuttingEdgeLaw.com
- Member – International Network on Therapeutic Jurisprudence
- Accredited Speaker – Illinois Continuing Legal Educations (CLE) program for lawyers
- Court certified mediator
- Lead Counsel Rating – LawInfo.com
- Member – PeacefulDivorce.org
- PARTICIPATING EXPERT – Child-Centered Divorce Support Network
- Member – Illinois Trial Lawyers Association
- Member – Family Law Section of the Illinois State Bar Association
- Member – Mediation Now
- Member – Association of Family and Conciliation Courts
- Member – Alternative Dispute Resolution Section of the Illinois State Bar Association
- Sustaining Member – DuPage County (Illinois) Bar Association
- Member – Family Law and Practice Committee, DuPage County (Illinois) Bar Association
- Panel Member – DuPage County (Illinois) Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service
- Attorney Member – American Responsible Divorce Network
- Member – Chicago Bar Association Matrimonial Law Committee
- Member – American Bar Association Section of Family Law
- Member – American Bar Association Section on Alternative Dispute Resolution
- Member – Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, DuPage County (Illinois) Bar Association
- Member – Association of Attorney-Mediators
- Member – Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC)
- Member – Family Law Committee, Southwest Bar Association of Cook County, Illinois
- Member – Domestic Relations Panel of the Lawyer Referral Service of the Chicago Bar Association
- Member – Family Law Committee, Will County (Illinois) Bar Association
- Member – National Registry of Who’s Who registered at The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
- Court Appointee – Attorney for the Child or Guardian Ad Litem
- Court Certified Mediator – and Appointee, DuPage County, Illinois
- Member – Family Law Attorney National Referral List, Institute for Certified Divorce Planners (ICDP)
- Peer-Recommended Professional – Divorce Magazine
- Founding Associate – Federal Mediation and Litigation Associates (FMALA), Washington, D.C.
- Proud supporter of Kids Come First Coalition
Education and Training
- Juris Doctor, DePaul University Law School, Chicago, IL, 1963
- Undergraduate at Benedictine College (Kansas) and Loyola University (Chicago)
- Admission to Illinois Bar (1963), also licensed to practice law in Michigan
- Admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, 1963
- Duly admitted and qualified as an attorney and counselor of the Supreme Court of the United States of America, Washington, D.C., August 26, 1971
- Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Program of Instruction for Lawyers – Advanced Mediation Training (Robert Mnookin, Gary Friedman, Jack Himmelstein, instructors), 2000 (Harvard Law ranked number one in dispute resolution by US News and World, 2002)
- Illinois State Bar Association Fred Lane Trial Technique Institute, 1996-1997
- Harvard Law School Program of Instruction for Lawyers – Program on Negotiation (Roger Fisher, instructor), 1999
- George Williams College of Aurora University School of Social Work, Williams Bay, WI – Conflict Resolution and Divorce Mediation Institute (additional training in divorce mediation and screening for impairments), 1999
- Pepperdine University School of Law, Malibu, California – Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Advanced Family Mediation Skills, 2000 (Pepperdine Law ranked number one in dispute resolution by US News & World Report, 2003)
- Collaborative Law Training, Collaborative Law Institute, Bloomington, Minnesota (Stuart Webb, instructor), 2002
- Pepperdine University School of Law – Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Collaborative Law Training, 2002
- Thirty-hour mediation externship in Kane County, Illinois, divorce court (in addition to ten hours of extern group roundtable discussion), sponsored through the George Williams College of Aurora University School of Social Work – Conflict Resolution and Divorce Mediation Institute, 1999–2000
- Harvard Law School, Program of Instruction for Lawyers – Advanced Negotiation Training (Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen, instructors), 2001
- DuPage County Bar Association Matrimonial Trial Advocacy Workshop, 2000
- JDS Mediation Training Institute, Chicago, Illinois, 1998
The Law Firm of KULERSKI and CORNELISON supports the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School.
