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FAMILY LAW
The practice of family law ranges widely, from matrimonial matters to paternity proceedings, and from elder care issues to parent-child disputes, school discipline, and beyond. The Firm has represented a variety of clients at all stages of such matters. Representation has included response to criminal and administrative investigations and proceedings, conduct of contested evidentiary hearings, and negotiation, mediation, and other forms of dispute resolution.
Examples of these matters have included:
• Representation of a young entertainer who was being stalked and harassed by a relative in the relative’s attempt to reestablish their relationship and to obtain publicity for himself. After obtaining a temporary order of protection from the court, the Firm negotiated a permanent order of protection on consent, providing the client with significantly more protection than would have been available under the statutory scheme. • Representation of a student wrongly accused of cheating on the college boards, and threatened with cancellation of the scores, and resultant loss of a place at a top university, based on an allegedly unusual increase in scores and strong statistical similarity to another student's answers. Under the standard form arbitration agreement, the student had no right to an evidentiary hearing. Moreover, the testing entity was not required to prove cheating, but was only required to show that it had acted reasonably and in good faith in deciding to cancel the scores. The Firm persuaded the arbitrator to hold an evidentiary hearing, at which the Firm presented uncontradicted evidence of the student's native intelligence, excellent grades, and intensive test preparation. The firm also showed numerous flaws in the testing entity's statistical procedures and proof. The arbitrator ruled conclusively in the student's favor, and the student remained at the university with an unblemished reputation. • Representation of a wife in a divorce, where her husband offered unacceptably low maintenance and child support. Following discovery, motion practice, and a trial, the court ordered the husband to pay more than six times the amount of maintenance and child support he had previously offered.


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