Latonia Early has established herself as one of the leading young matrimonial attorneys on Long Island - in little more than a decade. The 45-year-old Massapequa native brings a special combination of skills to the law - sensitivity and a quick-on-her-feet poise, as well as a toughness that's often concealed by a pleasant and attentive nature. ("I don't consider myself a confrontational person.")

For Early - the mother of two daughters - it has been a full plate of commitments in recent years, making her career accomplishments all the more remarkable. Nevertheless, she has emerged as a charismatic up-and-comer who is increasingly well known in the courthouses of Nassau County, where most of her practice takes place.

The youngest daughter of a striving family - her father owned a thriving auto-repair business in Ozone Park, Queens - Early got an early, harsh taste of racial hatred. She recalls her sister being escorted to elementary school by FBI agents while she and her mother were under a daily FBI watch to protect her family from death threats after moving to North Massapequa in 1970. Indeed, she says those childhood experiences - including a cross-burning on her family's front lawn in the early 1980's - only strengthened her sense of social justice: "It's one reason that I became a lawyer."

Never daunted by a challenge, Early excelled as both a scholar and an athlete. After Farmingdale High School, she went on to Princeton where she majored in American Economic and Social History, and African American Studies, and later Hofstra Law School. Recruited by a corporate firm based on Long Island, Early's first job didn't quite dazzle her: "I couldn't get very passionate about the business affairs of large corporations. It's important work, but it wasn't for me."

So less than two years out of law school, she joined a well known Long Island litigator and specialist in elder and family law issues. By 1998 Early found that matrimonial law suited her well: "I felt I was really affecting people, really touching people's lives with my work."

She has since moved her practice to The Law Offices of Anthony A. Capetola, the largest boutique matrimonial practice on Long Island.

Today, Early has something of a sub-specialty in adoption issues and she is well known in the gay and lesbian community for her "friendly and effective" legal assistance, peers say. In her well-appointed office is a Lladro porcelain figurine of a briefcase-toting woman with her young daughter headed off to school. "That symbolizes my life." She proudly points out she was "class mother" for one of her daughter's schools while assisting her older daughter's class with a monthly writing workshop. When she has time Early enjoys training in the martial arts, tennis and reading historical novels. She lives in Huntington, New York with her husband, Nicolas Bessiere, and her daughters, Marissa and Jocelyn.