Hal Mayerson has been one of Manhattan’s leading practitioners of matrimonial law for three decades. Wise, witty and progressive, Mayerson has provided steady, constructive leadership to a profession renowned for its contentiousness. In the process, his midtown practice, with fellow attorney Michael Stutman (the author of “How to Divorce in New York” [St. Martin’s Griffin, 1997]) and Alton Abramowitz, is perhaps the leading boutique firm in the city focusing on divorce law. (It is the only firm with three members of Ten Leaders of Matrimonial & Divorce Law of Manhattan. The firm has four Fellows of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers) Mayerson today handles only the most difficult and complex divorce cases - and yet manages to try fewer than a half-dozen cases each year, a testament to his negotiating skills and ability to manage a case. “He’s one of the most enlightened divorce lawyers I’ve worked with,” says a rival. “He always sees the big picture.” What’s more, Mayerson “casts a wide net,” partners say, as he is well known across the many social strata of New York City.

The Ontario native (he grew up in Brooklyn) hardly took a routine path to the law, and his early experiences - as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic and as a NYC Legal Aid criminal defense attorney - gave him perspective and sensitivity lacking in even some of the best lawyers.

Today Mayerson’s practice has nine attorneys, and special counsels, including family law professor Martin Guggenheim, all contributing to the firm’s intellectual culture. Himself divorced and now remarried to a New York City Public School teacher, he is the father os two grown children now in graduate school. Mayerson and his wife Rebecca live in Soho.

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