Patricia K Ballman

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Family & Domestic Relations

Our Family Services attorneys are experienced, knowledgeable and well-respected. They bring to each case a deep personal commitment to obtaining the best possible result for their client. They are aggressive and effective. Whether in trial or negotiating a settlement, our Family Services attorneys and their many colleagues at Quarles & Brady LLP with specialized legal expertise, bring a depth of creativity and understanding unmatched elsewhere.

Charitable Foundation: In a recent case involving a substantial marital estate, where the husband and wife disputed whether the husband had rightfully or wrongfully used marital funds to establish a charitable foundation in his own name, the Quarles & Brady attorneys representing the wife were able to structure a settlement that satisfied both parties. It was agreed that the wife would be granted sufficient funds to establish a charitable foundation in her own name. Quarles & Brady set up the charitable foundation according to the applicable tax regulations, and the remaining marital funds were divided equally, avoiding a possibly nasty trial.

Sale of Stock in Close Corporation: In a divorce, owning stock in a closely held company may become almost more of a liability than an asset. The stock usually must be valued, which can cause great disruption to the corporation. And a court's valuation may cause a divorcing minority shareholder to owe the spouse an unrealistic amount of money, or may result in the spouse being awarded half of the stock, usually an unworkable result. In such a situation it pays to be represented by a Quarles & Brady Family Services attorney because we have the experience and expertise to obtain a reasonable business valuation and the ability to solve business problems in creative ways.

Corporate Reorganization: Where there has been a valid buy-sell agreement between the divorcing shareholder and the corporation which allowed the corporation to force a sale of the stock, Quarles & Brady has successfully facilitated the sale of such stock while a divorce was pending, and structured the transaction so it met the needs of all concerned and avoided the risk of a runaway valuation.

Revising Corporate Profit Sharing Plan: One asset often divided in a divorce is a spouse's retirement plan. But a court cannot order the Plan Administrator to offer the non-employee spouse a payout option not offered in the plan itself.

The non-employee spouse often wants his or her share of the retirement plan paid out of the plan immediately, instead of waiting for the spouse's retirement, so that it can be rolled over to a self-directed IRA. And the employee-spouse and the employer often would prefer to have the ex-spouse out of the plan, so that plan documents and financial statements need not be shared with the ex-spouse in the future. But not all profit sharing plans allow a roll-out in the event of divorce. This is when our Quarles & Brady's resources and expertise make a difference.

On a number of occasions, Quarles & Brady has represented a key management employee, who, with the cooperation of the rest of management, had Quarles & Brady's Employee Benefits attorneys revise the employer's retirement plan, allowing divorcing non-employee spouses to roll out their share of the plan proceeds, making everybody happier.

Quarles & Brady's supporting expertise—in this case, its Employee Benefits attorneys, gives our family practice lawyers an advantage that few family lawyers have.

Defending the Prenuptial Agreement: When presenting to a court a written argument about whether a particular prenuptial agreement should be enforced, not many divorce attorneys are able to cite their own or their partners' published articles about prenuptial agreements. But in a recent trial in which we successfully represented a divorce client in enforcing his prenuptial agreement, we were able to do just that—because Quarles & Brady attorneys draft prenuptial agreements, write and publish legal analyses of the criteria for their enforceability and are respected by other attorneys and the courts for the depth of our knowledge about these specialized agreements.

Creative Business Valuation: In one case involving the division of a family-owned business, the Quarles & Brady family law attorney worked closely with tax and business advisors for both parties to ensure that the substantial property division payments were reasonable in light of future cash flow from the business. The result was that a significant property division was obtained for the Quarles & Brady client, while at the same time the business which generated the ability to pay the property division was not crippled in its operations, allowing it to continue to grow and generate profits.

Use of Prenuptial or Postnuptial Agreements: Responsible individuals make wills, do estate planning and maintain life insurance. Those precautions cover the contingency of a marriage ending by death. But because about half of the marriages in the United States end by divorce, additional measures should be considered.

While it usually does not make sense for a young engaged couple to enter into a prenuptial agreement, individuals contemplating marriage who have children from a prior marriage, or who own an interest in a family corporation, or who have substantial property, should receive sound legal advice about whether a prenuptial agreement makes sense for them.

Quarles & Brady attorneys who draft prenuptial agreements that are fair and protect our clients' separate property from the uncertain results of death or divorce includes: Patricia K. Ballman, Patrick J. Bitterman, Chris K. Gawart, Kathleen A. Gray, John H. Lhost, Sarah M. Linsley, Sally C. Merrell, Thomas A. Polachek, Stephen R. White.

Representing the Trust in Divorce: For any client with a beneficial or trustee interest in a trust which may be affected by a divorce, it is crucial to have a divorce attorney who can properly protect the trust interests from the possible overreach of the divorce court. Quarles & Brady not only has expert trust and estate lawyers, but also divorce attorneys who have extensive experience representing trustees and trust beneficiaries in the divorce court.

Business Lawyers: Because Quarles & Brady's business attorneys represent large and small companies on a daily basis, we know how to structure stock transactions, understand the tax implications of transactions, can do advance planning to protect business assets and know how to get favorable, sound business appraisals. Divorce clients with substantial assets at risk need that kind of representation at the time of divorce.

Property Division: Most of a divorcing couple's assets, including unvested retirement plans and unvested stock options, are subject to division. The only exception is property received as a gift from a third person or an inheritance. If the couple cannot agree on how to divide the property, the court will usually divide equally the total of the divisible property. It may alter this division, however, after considering many statutory factors, including any of the following.
* Length of the marriage
* Property brought to or contributed to the marriage by either party
* Whether one of the parties has substantial assets not subject to division, such as gifts, inheritances or trust interests
* Prenuptial or post-nuptial agreements of the parties
* Tax consequences

Quarles & Brady's attorneys have specialized knowledge in property division that many divorce attorneys do not have, including corporate expertise, experience representing trusts and trust beneficiaries, tax specialists, experience drafting and litigating prenuptial/post-nuptial agreements, experts on stock option agreements and retirement plan specialists.

Enforceability of Stock Buy-Sell Provisions At Divorce

Custody and Physical Placement of Children: Joint custody means that both parties maintain parental control and have the right to participate in decisions regarding medical care, religious training and choice of schools. The judge assumes that joint legal custody is in the children's best interest, but can order sole custody under certain circumstances. Placement refers to the schedule of time that a child spends with each parent.

Custody and placement of the children will be shared or allocated between the parents based on many factors which may include the following.
* Reports of appropriate professionals
* Wishes of the child and parents
* Interrelationships of the child with parents, siblings and others who may affect the child's best interests
* Amount and quality of time that each parent has spent with the children
* Child's adjustment to the home, school, religion and community
* Age of the children and the children's developmental and educational needs

At Quarles & Brady, we strive to avoid upsetting custody/placement litigation by utilizing mediation and negotiations. But when settlement cannot be achieved, we have the experience and the sensitivity to successfully represent our clients in custody/placement disputes.

Maintenance: Maintenance, also called alimony or spousal support, is payment of money from one spouse to the other during or after a divorce. After a divorce, maintenance usually is deductible by the person who pays it and is reportable as taxable income to the recipient.

A couple may agree on whether and how much maintenance is appropriate. If they do not agree, the court decides whether to award maintenance and for how long, after considering relevant factors, including the following.
* Length of the marriage
* Division of the property
* Likelihood that the party seeking maintenance can become self-supporting at a standard of living reasonably comparable to that enjoyed during marriage
* Any prenuptial or post-nuptial agreement of the parties
* Tax consequences

In negotiating or litigating maintenance issues, Quarles & Brady Family Services attorneys constantly strive to reach the best results for our clients, with the most favorable tax consequences. We can do this better than many divorce attorneys, because of the supporting expertise of our tax team.

Child Support: Child support, which is non-taxable to the recipient and non-deductible to the payer, is most commonly determined by multiplying a given percentage times the gross income of the parent without primary placement: 17% for one child, 25% for two children, 29% for three children, 31% for four children, and 34% for five or more children. However, the court is not required to use the percentage approach if it determines that it would be unfair in a particular case, for example, if the parents have substantially equal physical placement of the children, or if a payer has an existing obligation to pay support due to a prior divorce or paternity judgment, or if a payer is not working up to capacity.

Quarles & Brady Family Services attorneys have the expertise to resolve support disputes often with innovative approaches, For example, payments can be structured to save taxes, child support trusts can be created or college trusts can be arranged for the children. These are creative solutions which benefit both the parties and the children.

Fellow - American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers

Patricia K Ballman
Quarles & Brady
411 E Wisconsin Ave #2040
Milwaukee WI 53202
Tel: 414 277-5145
Fax: 414 978-8987
E-mail: patricia.ballman@quarles.com

Related Practice Groups:
- Family & Domestic Relations
- Commercial Transactions Litigation

After over 32 years practicing family law, Pat Ballman has chosen to limit her practice to mediation and expert witness work. In her 32 years, Pat’s practice focused on divorce, treatment of business interests, tax considerations, and premarital and postnuptial agreements. She also has substantial depth of experience dealing with business valuations, close corporations and trust interests.

Pat is a trained, certified mediator and is able to facilitate resolution of family disputes for those parties who seek to avoid courtroom conflict.

Pat is also uniquely qualified to serve as an expert witness in family law matters, most frequently acting as an expert on the issue of the enforceability of prenuptial agreements. Pat brings to each case a deep personal commitment to obtaining the best possible results for parties in mediation and for her clients. She has the depth of legal experience, creativity and the understanding to achieve successful results. Here are a few examples of the unique results she has achieved:

* Prenuptial Agreements: When arguing to a court that a particular prenuptial agreement should or should not be enforced, not many divorce attorneys can cite their own publications as authoritative on the subject of prenuptial agreements. Pat is recognized as the leading lawyer in Wisconsin concerning prenuptial agreements. As a result, Pat Ballman successfully represented, in trial, a divorce client in enforcing his prenuptial agreement.

* Stock in Close Corporation: In a divorce, owning stock in a closely held company may become almost more of a liability than an asset. Usually the stock must be valued, which can cause a great disruption in business operations. Additionally, a court’s valuation may cause a divorcing minority shareholder to owe the spouse an unrealistic amount of money – or may result in the spouse being awarded half of the stock; this is usually an unworkable result. Pat has a proven track record in representing clients in these situations and the ability to solve business problems in creative ways, whether it means mediating or negotiating to create a new class of non-voting stock, stock voting trusts or other devices to separate property. Pat achieves this while preserving the viability of the business.