Benjamin Mackoff strives to take the sting out of divorce
In the film, “The War of the Roses,” Danny DeVito plays a divorce attorney who relates the story of Oliver and Barbara Rose, a seemingly happy couple.
They have everything until their love fades and is replaced by outright hatred. The two battle for possession of their home and its contents, but material possessions become secondary to mutual hostility. The Roses destroy the house and, in the end, each other.
“There is no winning in a divorce, only degrees of losing,” said DeVito. “A civilized divorce is a contradiction in terms.”
Although fictional, and a very black comedy, the film does underscore the nastiness and ugliness that a divorce can entail. Benjamin S. Mackoff has devoted much of his career to lessening that pain for couples with troubled marriages.
A retired chief judge of the Cook County Domestic Relations Division, Mackoff is a partner in Schiller, DuCanto & Fleck, Chicago. He will be honored next month as an ISBA Senior Counsellor for 50 years of practice, but he almost followed a different career path.
“I was pre-med at the University of Chicago,“ he explained, “but physical chemistry was my undoing. So I took some vocational guidance tests and they said I would be a good undertaker or lawyer. I chose law.”
A graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law, Mackoff began his career with the firm of Davis, Deitch & Ryan. After a year in the Army, he became an assistant state’s attorney.
During this seven-year stint, he received a Chicago Crime Commission citation for successfully prosecuting the first contract killing in 50 years.
In 1964, Mackoff became the first administrative director of the newly constituted circuit court, which combined 166 courts into one unified system.
Two years later, he helped implement a Conciliation Services program for the divorce court. It was designed to help people reconcile or work out their problems with a psychologist.
“It was also our first-attempt to take the sting out of the divorce process and its bad emotions,” Mackoff said. “There were very few reconciliations, but there were many agreements with regard to settlements.”
In private practice 29 years later, he would continue to pioneer his work in this area.
Mackoff was appointed to the judiciary in 1973, serving as a trial judge in the Criminal Division. “I enjoyed criminal work because I had been a prosecutor,” he recalled, “and I enjoyed jury trials. I think that’s what appealed to me most.”
He said his most unusual accomplishment in the Criminal Courthouse was saving the ceiling in his room 400 after water flooded down from the eighth floor to the seventh and sixth floors.
“The ceilings were very ornate and were done by stenciling,” Mackoff pointed out. “They were just beautiful.”
The repair project, however, called for drop-down ceilings with air conditioning throughout all floors. The ornate ceilings were to be eliminated, but Mackoff wanted his undamaged ceiling untouched.
“I received the support of the county board president and the chief judge,” he said, “and an order was entered that the ceiling in Room 400 wasn’t to be touched.”
A plan was devised to drop down the hallway ceiling and allow air conditioning to enter his room from a side vent. “I think it’s still called the Mackoff Ceiling,” he added.
In 1977, he was assigned to the 1st Municipal District as supervising judge. In 1982, he formed a pretrial mediation section in the Law Division and was its administrative head for three years.
From 1986 to 1995, Mackoff served as presiding judge in Domestic Relations, a highly charged, stressful atmosphere. He said he looked at it with the understanding that he would be going home to an entirely different situation at day’s end.
When he retired in 1995, he joined Schiller, DuCanto & Fleck and created its Family Mediation Services and continuing legal education program.
“During his tenure as presiding judge, Ben reorganized Domestic Relations and enhanced its image,” said Donald C. Schiller. “His choosing our firm was a great compliment to us.”
It wasn’t the first time they worked together. When Schiller was ISBA president in 1987-88, he asked Mackoff to head a conclave on The Family in Society at the end of his presidential term.
“I got the idea from Ben, and I asked him to get the job done,” Schiller recalled. “He did, and did it well.”
Mackoff was able to attract nationally respected professionals from all disciplines affecting family breakdowns to discuss key issues affecting domestic relations practice.
Joining the law firm seven years later, “He brought his wisdom, experience, integrity and warm personality to us, and we provided a home for him to do what he loves best,” Schiller said.
“With a good mediator,” Mackoff explained, “spouses will better understand the realities of the dissolution process and the likelihood of success or non-success where there are unreasonable expectations.”
He believes that mediation can remove some of the ugliness in divorce. “It forces spouses to recognize their emotional investment in the process and to find a more realistic understanding of the dissolution process,” he said.
The Illinois Supreme Court has a rule that permits the various circuits to determine what the role of mediation will be, Mackoff said.
“There is a group of psychologists and lawyers in what’s called Marriage and Family Counseling,” he continued. “In all child-related cases where there is no settlement regarding children, they are referred to counseling to try and resolve those issues.”
Mackoff is especially proud of this service. “There were four full-time psychologists and one part-time psychologist when I went on the bench,” Mackoff said. “We expanded it to 24.”
There are more social science resources for troubled marriages now, particularly those involving children, than in years past, he said, and lawyers rely on that. Still, few firms have mediation services.
“I don’t think it’s strongly recommended by lawyers,” Mackoff said. “I think they see it as a loss of control or a loss of fees.”
Marriage dissolution costs are high. “It’s more expensive today because of contested matters where expect witnesses are called for evaluation of child custody or assets,” he said.
Mackoff doesn’t see matrimonial lawyers as different than other lawyers. “Family law requires a great deal of compassion and empathy with clients,” he pointed out.
“Most lawyers want to get a job done and help their clients through a very tough time in their lives. At the same time, they want to protect clients from other lawyers who want to do the right thing for their clients.”
Mackoff allows that some lawyers are more combative, and some clients will seek them out.
“Either these clients are interested in punishing their spouses,” he said, “or protecting their assets to the extent that the spouse may surrender a position in order to conclude the matter.”
A past chair of the ISBA Task Force on the Family, Mackoff received a Board of Governors Award for that in 1988. He has served in numerous ISBA entities, including the Alternative Dispute Resolution and Family Law Section Councils.
He maintains a full-schedule. In addition to being a mediator, he’s also a child representative and a guardian ad litem. He serves on an Illinois Family Law Study Group to consider modifications to the present practice.
He also serves on the advisory board of the Schiller firm’s Family Law Center at the DePaul University College of Law, and he has taught trial techniques and alternative dispute resolution at The John Marshall Law School.
Mackoff’s charitable endeavors include establishment of a Cardinal Cody Fellowship at Hebrew University and a John S. Boyle Scholarship at the Northwestern University School of Law.