The veteran of hundreds of divorce cases in his 39-year career, Stephen Gassman is currently regarded as one of the finest matrimonial attorneys in New York - and, indeed, one of the finest in the nation. He leads a firm devoted exclusively to divorce law, and over the past two decades several attorneys have properly learned the law working for him.

The Roslyn, N.Y. native began his career in a court clerkship that exposed him early to divorce law - and to the double-barreled issues of asset-valuation and custody, which are central to most cases.

A prolific writer and lecturer over the years, Gassman is both personable and efficient -- and he has honed a reputation for thoroughness, precision and toughness. Such skills - he's now at the peak of his professional career - put him in great demand.

That of course has a downside: Gassman today takes on the only most complex cases involving the most challenging valuation issues, and he laments that has no choice but to turn away scores of other cases that come to him. "The straightforward cases can and should be handled by a less-expensive attorney," he says.

Today Gassman lives in Manhasset and Quogue.