Attorney Allan Koritzinsky (’63, JD’66) has litigated more than 4,000 divorces and officiated nearly 50 weddings. He’s also been married for 57 years and is a father of two and grandfather of five. So, it’s safe to say he knows a thing or two about marriage — and divorce.
After graduating law school, Koritzinsky didn’t set out to get into the family law field. He started his career in 1970 doing everything from litigation to business, estate planning and more.
“I used to tell people I do everything except circus law, and that usually got a laugh because there’s no such thing,” says Koritzinsky, an alumnus of UW–Madison’s history program. “However, after a few years, I was drawn to family law, because it’s a very people-oriented practice.”
His law practice grew quickly, and he built one of the largest divorce practices in Madison and in the state. Through his work, he crossed paths with Ken Waldron, a PhD-trained clinical psychologist whose practice was devoted to providing services to divorced or separated parents. Together, they have nearly 100 years of professional practice and experience, and in that time, they saw the good, the bad and the ugly of the marriage and divorce industries.
Koritzinsky and Waldron knew they had knowledge to share, and they are now on a mission to spread the word. They started with a website, marriageanddivorce.org, where they share substantial free resources for legal and mental health professionals, people getting married, married couples who are having trouble in their marriages, people thinking about a divorce, people going through a divorce, people already divorced (especially with children) and the like. Their mission is simple: to make marriage and divorce better.
“The reason there’s so much conflict is because people lack the skills needed to keep a marriage intact,” Koritzinsky says. “We really want our project to make a difference.”
The duo also started writing books together. The first was a technical work, Game Theory and the Transformation of Family Law, that was written to provide lawyers and mediators with a resource to help them decrease conflict, optimize outcomes and establish constructive co-parenting relationships. The crux of all of their books is to utilize the mathematical principles of game theory — the scientific study of how and why people make decisions — to optimize outcomes for the whole family.
They expanded on this book with a second book called Winning Strategies in Divorce. In an effort to grow their impact beyond the courtroom, they wrote another book on the topic of divorce, this time addressed to married couples, called Planning a Sensible Divorce.
“It’s about avoiding the toxic dance of a messy divorce, and it’s once again based on game theory,” Koritzinsky says. “Our science-based research on game theory may, over time, change how marriages work and how divorces occur in this country, if we can get out the word.”
One day while Waldron was playing tennis, one of his friends asked him a question: “You’ve done all of this writing on divorce, why don’t you do one on marriage?” That question sparked the inspiration that led to their fourth book, The Road to Marital Success is Unpaved. The book is a how-to guide for preventing, reducing and resolving conflicts that inevitably show up in any marriage.
For Koritzinsky, this most recent book serves as the perfect bookend to their work, because all four books communicate one consistent message: “Married couples need to learn the skills necessary to have a successful marriage, or (if needed), a sensible divorce.”
Next up, the duo is working on an article about how for parents, the relationship often doesn’t end after the divorce is finalized. The goal is to teach skills to families so that they can co-parent effectively after a divorce. Like their books, the article will include a list of practical skills. This time, they will outline approaches to manage the logistics of running one family from multiple residences.
“We believe we are close to a solution that will help families,” Koritzinsky says.
Beyond writing books and managing their website, Koritzinsky has kept busy in his retirement doing mediation and arbitration, volunteering for Madison Entrepreneur Resource Learning and Innovation Network (MERLIN) mentoring startup businesses and staying physically active. He also remains a proud supporter of UW–Madison, the Wisconsin Alumni Association and the College of Letters & Science.
“I can’t emphasize enough that I wouldn’t have had my professional success, but for the seven years I spent at UW–Madison,” Koritzinsky says.