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Popular Articles

Bringing the Magic

I had a case in which I was retained, not for a collaborative matter, but for litigation. (Back then, I still had the reputation for being “an aggressive family law trial attorney.”)

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Growing Apart

Overheard among a group of middle school boys drinking mochas in a coffeehouse, as one tastes another’s coffee: “That is so ridiculously sweet! That’s like something a five-year-old would make!”

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Our History

Open Palm Law has been in practice for 25 years. Our purpose is to provide affordable and creative solutions for your family’s legal problems. We provide comprehensive legal and collaborative services for families: life event planning, divorce, paternity, custody and timesharing, alimony, family support, child support, post-nuptial agreements, prenuptial agreements, among other services. We also provide service solutions for families appealing the trial court’s ruling in their matters.

1980

Open Palm Law founder Joryn Jenkins graduated with her law degree from Georgetown after having graduated from Yale in 1976 at the age of 19. She then went to work for a number of large law firms as well as the State Attorney’s Office in Florida and a stint as a law professor at Stetson University.

1994

Following Joryn’s experience working for a number of different law firms in several disciplines, she decided to open her own firm. She founded Joryn Jenkins and Associates and began taking cases in the areas she had worked in previously—namely: appellate, bankruptcy, and commerical litigation.

1997

After three years of private practice, Joryn Jenkins and Associates had begun to expand their specialty into family law. By 1997, half of all of their caseload was family law issues, while the other half was the more traditional areas of practice appellate, bankruptcy, and commercial litigation.

1999

As the practice grew, it was time for Joryn Jenkins and Associates to move to a larger and more permanent office. She relocated from her downtown high-rise office to her current offices which are located at 3839 Kennedy Boulevard in Tampa.

2002

Family law began to become a more significant part of Joryn’s practice. It was at this time she had her first collaborative divorce cases. At this point, Joryn began to focus her practice on family law and specifically on the collaborative process.

2004

Lori Skipper joined Joryn Jenkins and Associates straight out of law school at the University of Florida. She joined the team to help expand the collaborative family law practice and help Joryn realize her vision to change the way the world gets divorced.

2009

As the collaborative practice expanded, the firm brought more professionals into the process to make it more tailored and complete. This included financial professionals, mental health professionals, real estate professionals, as well as a variety of others rounding out the team. This approach meant better services for our clients.

2013

Joryn published her first books, War or Peace and I Never Saw My Father Again, to further enlighten people on a new and better way to divorce. Additionally, to further emphasize the firm’s focus on collaborative divorce, the firm was renamed Open Palm Law.

2016

Taking the cause of “Changing the Way the World Gets Divorced” to the next level, Joryn published her third book of the same name. She then started her new business, the Open for Business Institute, with the purpose of helping other attorneys market their practices and provide more collaborative services for their clients.