By Lisa Ann Sharpe, AAML

What happens when your client’s marriage exists in two worlds, say one home in Chicago and another in Paris, and the marriage begins to unravel? That was the starting point for a fascinating session at the 2025 AAML Annual Meeting, where the presenters walked us through a hypothetical couple living between the U.S. and France, showing just how quickly a divorce can become an international puzzle. As the iconic aria “Habanera” from Georges Bizet’s opera “Carmen” reminds us, “Love is a gypsy’s child, it has never, ever, known a law.”

Jorge M. Cestero, Sasser, Cestero and Roy P.A. (Florida), Trish Cooper, Cooper Ramp Cage Bucar Lewis LLC (Denver) and Ronald Kauffman, Ronald H. Kauffman PA (Florida) discussed the challenges of an international divorce, from jurisdiction to custody and service of process to enforcement, and we learned that every stop is layered with complexity. 

The panel left us with three takeaways that every practitioner should remember.

1. Don’t go it alone. Retain counsel in the other country early. Even the best strategy can fail without local insight into that jurisdiction’s family law system. A good place to look for help is IAFL.com
2. Know The Hague Convention. Whether you are dealing with child abduction or custody enforcement, The Hague framework governs much of the international playbook.
3. Service abroad is harder than it looks. Different countries have different rules for what counts as property notice. Mistakes here can derail a case.

This session is a reminder that family law is no longer local, it’s global. When families cross borders, so must our understanding of family law.