Judge Sankovitz crowned his career with a two-and-a-half-year tour in the Family Division, presiding in divorce, paternity, child support and child abuse disputes. He concluded more than 800 divorces and resolved countless more post-judgment disputes involving property- and debt-division, maintenance, child custody, placement and child support. He is the principal author of the local rules of the Family Division.

Presiding in family disputes teaches judges profound lessons about the virtues of mediation, lessons that are applicable in many other areas of the law.

Judges assigned to the Family Division practice every day helping adversaries find their way to an agreement both can live with, and helping them design the solution to their dispute rather than imposing the solution on them, knowing that if a party perceives himself or herself as the loser the dispute won’t ever truly be over, because the loser will always be looking for an opportunity to even the score.