Bill Schreiber has been practicing matrimonial law for more than 30 years in Monmouth County, New Jersey, and has rightly earned a reputation as one of the top attorneys in the field. In fact, in addition to handling a large number of complex and challenging cases, the 63-year-old Rutherford, N.J., native has long assumed a leadership position in the matrimonial bar - he served as president of the New Jersey Chapter of the prestigious American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers from 2003-04. And, with keen mind and curious outlook, he maintains a youthful and energetic enthusiasm for the law, regularly citing complex case law from memory.

Growing up he excelled in the sciences, and, amid the '60s space race, Schreiber says he dreamed of becoming an astronomical engineer. But his parents pointed out "I always had an answer to every question" and "I was always more a talker than a scientist;" he also excelled in debating and drama, qualities essential to becoming a successful trial lawyer. After college he went straight to law school ("I was an exception: I actually liked it") and emerged primed for trial law.

He worked for two years for a Jersey City firm and handled dozens of criminal cases, including two murder cases. A law-school friend of Schreiber introduced his classmate to Bernie Hoffman, then an up-and-coming trial attorney in Monmouth County. Hoffman & Schreiber was born soon thereafter. Schreiber, not even 30, plunged into matrimonial law where "I could represent people in a real and meaningful way." He handled a difficult custody case in his first year; one of his earliest cases established that a father's private pension income could be garnished if he failed to pay alimony, a breakthrough at the time. Today Hoffman, Schreiber & Cores, with a single associate, handle scores of cases each year, and their converted Victorian on Broad Street in Red Bank bustles every day.

Schreiber loves vintage automobiles, but they are hardly his hobby - "mostly it's my work," he says. Outgoing and interested in people, Schreiber says "there's nothing I'd rather be doing, and clients can tell." Schreiber and his wife have two children, a son who is employed at Goldman Sachs in New York City and a daughter who lives in Washington, D.C. He lives in nearby Ocean Township.