High-Conflict Family Law Cases: Financial Misconduct, Parental Alienation, and Mental Health Challenges

Alan R. Feigenbaum | Blank Rome LLP

Alan is an experienced matrimonial and family law attorney whose prime focus is the maximization of his clients’ long-term, post-divorce, emotional capital.

He assists a diverse range of professionals and their spouses, including business owners, lawyers, investors, and entertainers, on their family law matters, with a notable focus on evaluating the optimal strategies to manage and resolve complex financial and custody disputes. He is well-versed in managing agreements (separation, prenuptial, and postnuptial) to create a framework for his clients’ futures, and approaches dispute resolution with an eye toward facilitating cooperation and reducing conflict, making every effort to settle cases out of court. Understanding that divorce can affect the trajectory of a person’s life, Alan focuses on his clients’ long-term financial and familial best interests. His multifaceted approach has included:

• Working with financial experts to identify and define the scope of assets acquired by a spouse before the marriage, thereby eliminating litigation over whether those assets are part of the marital pot;
• Resolving the disposition of a spouse’s interest in a business without resorting to a pro forma approach that assumes complex valuation of that interest is always required;
• Reaching agreement on the payment of expenses while a divorce action is pending, without the need for costly, interim support motion practice;
• Negotiating interim parenting schedules by empowering parents and not substituting attorney judgment for that of the parents;
• Settling contentious custody disputes without involving court-appointed professionals, sparing the family from the potentially lasting effects of domestic relations litigation; and
• Prioritizing the value clients place on financial independence both during and after the divorce action concludes, including in the case of the non-monied spouse evaluating the financially feasibility of retaining the marital home.

Alan also has significant courtroom experience, including first-chair trial experience in domestic relations matters and, at an early stage in his career, examining witnesses before the U.S. International Trade Commission. He also speaks and writes frequently on matters of family law. Alan is a regular contributing columnist for the New York Law Journal on matters of divorce law. For his pro bono work at the firm, Alan is a volunteer discharge upgrade attorney for The Veterans Consortium.

Daniel Lipschutz | AMS LLP

Daniel represents individuals and families in complex domestic and international family law disputes, including matters related to divorce, custody, asset division, child and spousal support, paternity, and business valuations. As an experienced litigator and practitioner, Daniel has consistently been recognized in peer-reviewed surveys as a top matrimonial attorney in New York and, more recently, Florida. In addition to litigation, he has extensive experience in alternative dispute resolution, including arbitrations and mediations, conducted locally, nationally, and internationally.

Daniel’s cases have attracted national and international media attention and addressed landmark issues and matters of first impression. Notable achievements include securing the return of two Ukrainian children to a non-country of habitual residence, obtaining an unequal distribution award in a long-term marriage—affirmed on appeal, prevailing on an abuse of process claim in a divorce case stemming from the misuse of police to secure exclusive possession of a marital home—also affirmed on appeal, and successfully enforcing an antenuptial agreement leading to the entry of a series of money judgments exceeding $60 Million.

While Daniel does not disclose the names of his clients due to privacy concerns, they are typically high- to ultra-high-net-worth individuals, athletes, or public figures. Daniel is admitted to practice in both Florida and New York and has published extensively and lectured on various family law topics

I. Management of a complex case | 2:00pm – 2:20pm

• How to run a case
• Organization
• Appraisals
• Discovery
• Deadlines
• Case management best practices

II. Financial misconduct: Strategies for asset discovery | 2:20pm – 2:40pm

• Techniques for identifying and tracing hidden assets
• Utilizing forensic accounting in family law cases

III. Navigating parental alienation: Legal and psychological perspectives | 2:40pm – 3:00pm

• Defining parental alienation and its impact on children
• Legal frameworks and remedies for addressing alienation
• Collaborating with mental health professionals for assessments
• Strategies for re-establishing healthy parent-child relationships

Break | 3:00pm – 3:10pm

IV. Mental health considerations in family law | 3:10pm – 3:25pm

• Common mental health issues encountered in family law cases
• Best practices for addressing mental health in custody disputes
• The role of psychological evaluations and expert testimony
• Resources for attorneys to support clients with mental health challenges

V. Conflict resolution techniques for family law practitioners | 3:25pm – 3:40pm

• Understanding the sources of conflict in family law cases
• Mediation and negotiation strategies for resolving disputes
• Techniques for managing high-conflict personalities
• Building rapport and trust with clients and opposing parties