Holly Wanzer is a founding attorney of Wanzer Edwards, P.C. where she focuses her practice in family law, including collaborative divorce, family mediation, parenting coordination, appeals and representation of children as a guardian ad litem.
Ms. Wanzer earned her Juris Doctor summa cum laude from the Indiana University Robert McKinney School of Law. She graduated magna cum laude from Ball State University, earning her Bachelor of Science degree in English and advertising.
Ms. Wanzer was the founding President of the Board of Directors for the Central Indiana Association of Collaborative Professionals, which provides innovative alternatives to litigating divorce and family law matters, with an emphasis on co-parenting and resolving cases without court intervention. She has presented numerous seminars regarding collaborative law including a two-day basic training for attorneys, mental health practitioners and financial professionals in interdisciplinary collaborative law, an educational teleseminar on Collaborative law for the National Business Institute called “Collaborative Law in Family Law Disputes”, and seminars on the Collaborative family law process for the ICLEF Masters Series program and Indiana State Bar Association’s Solo & Small Firm Conference. She authored the book Introduction to Collaborative Divorce, released by James Publishing in 2014.
Ms. Wanzer is a registered family mediator and trained parenting coordinator providing services to families facing the changing circumstances which accompany dissolution of marriage, custody and parenting time modifications, child support modifications and paternity determinations. Her commitment to the private resolution of family issues, the preservation of positive working relationships within families, and her calm demeanor and sensitivity in the face of emotional challenges make her the ideal choice as a mediator or parenting coordinator for family law matters. Ms. Wanzer is a frequent speaker and presenter on issues involving mediation and mediator ethics.
Ms. Wanzer serves as a guardian ad litem representing the interests of children in courts across central Indiana. She passionately advocates for the best interests of children while at the same time seeking to shield them from the need to personally participate in the legal process.
Ms. Wanzer has been selected as a Super Lawyer by Superlawyers Magazine from 2017-the present. She is a past president of the Indianapolis Bar Foundation which she continues to support as a Distinguished Fellow and Life Fellow. She volunteers her time as a Guardian ad Litem in the Marion County Superior courts and with the Marion County and Hendricks County Modest Means Mediation programs.
Posts
Making Up Is Hard to Do
Life always seems to interrupt the best laid plans. Even the most carefully constructed parenting plan will get interrupted when something outside the normal family routine or out of the control of a parent happens and causes a parent to be unavailable for parenting time. Perhaps it is a work trip or an out-of-town funeral. Anything unplanned that makes the normal schedule not work will create a need for adjustment. The Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines recognize that sometimes the parenting schedule needs to change. The parent who becomes aware of a conflict needs to notify the other parent as quickly as possible. Parents are to try to work together [...]
Not at My House . . .
Children whose parents live in separate homes learn to manage change and differences. Perhaps the bedtime at Mom’s house is different than the bedtime at Dad’s house. Maybe the rules about cell phones or screen time vary. Some differences are expected and many are manageable. But, when Mom and Dad disagree about medication and don’t administer prescribed medication the same, suddenly those differences can have a big and even dangerous impact. Parents with joint decision-making authority (often called joint legal custody) are required to discuss and agree on child-related decisions about health, education, and religion. Medical decisions include the choices regarding which medical professionals will treat the children and what treatments and medications will be administered [...]
Who Are You Anymore?
Have you seen the funny memes about how people in long term relationships start to look like one another? When we spend lots of time together and manage a common life together, we definitely rub off on each other in lots of ways. But when we split up, those commonalities can start to change and those can cause conflict as people start to co-parent after they split up. Parents who used to agree on how to raise their children may start to disagree on important child-related decisions as each individual parent makes his or her way forward following the end [...]
Can’t AI Help Me Avoid Attorney Fees?
Whether you think artificial intelligence, commonly referred to as AI, is useful or a little scary, there is no denying that it is already starting to impact daily life. Have you noticed that when you do a simple search on Google, you get a summary answer at the top? That’s AI. If you have started using AI for information gathering on small issues in your life such as which restaurant to choose or what gift to buy for someone, you may have started considering using it for bigger tasks. If AI can search and retrieve answers in seconds, why not [...]
I Didn’t Want a PC, So I am Not Cooperating!
A Parenting Coordinator (PC for short) is appointed by a court to help high conflict parents implement their court orders regarding custody, parenting time, and other child-related issues. Sometimes only one parent wanted a PC to be appointed, and the other parent opposed it. If you were the parent who opposed the appointment, it can be tempting to refuse to cooperate with the PC, but is that a good idea? First, remember that the PC was assigned by the judge in your case with a court order. Read that order carefully to see if it instructs you to take certain [...]
We Split Up Years Ago, But Never Got Around to Divorcing
Divorce is hard to face, and sometimes couples who split up put it off indefinitely. While it is relatively normal for couples to try a brief period of separation before making the decision to file for divorce, when the physical separation drags on for months or years, it can create difficult problems when one spouse decides that he or she is finally ready to start the process. Living separately is not the same thing as a legal separation, and the law will not treat it the same. Many spouses live separately for practical or job reasons and they make the [...]
