A life committed to helping people navigate their divorces without losing their minds



People often ask me why I practice divorce law. This is my story…

I know how it feels when your world blows up.

I was eight years old when my world flipped upside down. I came home as usual after school one afternoon, and I could tell something was wrong when my older sister opened the front door. “Mom’s not here,” she told me.

How could that be, I thought? Mom was always there, reliable as the sun rising in the morning.

I looked for my mom in the house and saw that her clothes were gone, and that’s when I began to panic. I ran to the phone when it rang, and it was her. “I’m at the mall,” she said. “I love you.”

She didn’t say any more, but that day, and in the days and weeks that followed, a rush of words came at me to explain what was going on. Mom and Dad weren’t getting along. Mom had to make a change. Everything would be all right.

But I couldn’t understand. Where was Mom? There was no word from her for another six months. What would make her so unhappy she would pack up and leave? Because that’s what she had done. She had packed her suitcase and moved out and wasn’t returning. She wasn’t coming back to me.

I tried to think of what I could have done to make her so angry, so sad. It must have been terrible. My stomach churned.

I thought I had been born into a happy family. I was sure we were happy, the four of us. We were living in Hawaii—and growing up in Hawaii, as Larry David would say, is “pretty … pretty … pretty … good.” But it’s terrifying when you’re in third grade, and you find out that happy really means sad and “good” is really just empty.

First trauma, then a long, long cold war.

My parents’ divorce was bitter, and I felt helpless as it spilled over onto me. My mom and dad battled, and mostly, I was sad. I knew our family wasn’t going to come back together again, and it didn’t.

For many months, people came in and out to care for my sister and me. Then, my dad met a new partner, and we started seeing more of her. She had a daughter a little older than my sister, and they liked each other, so that helped. We had some stability again.

But that didn’t stop the cold war between my parents, and I felt helpless as I watched it. There was nothing I could do to save my mom from the anguish and financial worries and sleepless nights that came once she walked out, nothing to get back even of a little of the warmth we’d had as a family with her in it.

My mom didn’t come to my high school graduation, or my college graduations, and when I was married, she came but then my Dad bowed out. We never closed the distance between us.

Let me help you find a better way.

Divorce doesn’t have to be this way. You don’t have to lose your mind, blow up your family with impulsive actions, or leave your children mystified and suffering. You don’t have to throw your financial security out the window to get out of your marriage or give up your peace of mind. If my mom were my client today, that’s what I’d tell her, and we’d map out a strategy to protect everyone involved.

I can’t do that for her, of course, but I can do it for you and your children.

I became a divorce lawyer because I know exactly what it feels like to be caught in the turmoil of a difficult divorce, and I’ve spent the better part of two decades helping people find sane, workable ways forward so they can avoid the kind of suffering my family went through. Together, we can see that you and your children come out of your divorce whole.

The world may be spinning now, but I can help you make the next decision and the next from a place of calm and clarity. We’ll lay the foundations that will let you and your children rebuild and be happy again.

Contact

I invite you to get in touch.

You can schedule a free 45-minute discovery call with my trusted team to discuss the best next steps for your divorce.

You can learn more about my perspective on difficult divorces by watching our five-part video series.

You can obtain a copy of my book Getting Divorced Without Losing Your Mind on Amazon and listen to it on Audible and Spotify Audiobooks.

  • New York Association of Collaborative Professionals

    • Association of Family and Conciliation Courts

    • Academy of Professional Family Mediators

    • New York State Unified Court System, Attorney-Client Fee Dispute Resolution Program, Arbitrator

    • New York County Supreme Court’s Roster of Matrimonial Mediators

    • American Bar Association

    • New York Star Bar Association

  • • Basic Collaborative Interdisciplinary Training, New York Association of Collaborative Professionals, 2022

    • Joint Committee on Fee Disputes and Conciliation Part 137 Program: Fee Dispute Arbitration Training, New York County Lawyers Association, 2022

    • New Ways for Mediation Training, Bill Eddy, 2021

    • Advanced Divorce Mediation Training, Robert Kirkman Collins, 2021

    • Divorce Financial Planning, Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts, 2020

    • Advanced Mediation Training, Stalder Mediation, 2019

    Trial Program, National Family Law Trial Institute, 2018

    • Advanced Mediation Training, The Center for Understanding in Conflict, 2018

    • Working Creatively with Conflict, The Center for Understanding in Conflict, 2017

    • Basic Mediation Training in Divorce, The Center for Mediation and Training, 2017

    • Advanced Legal Writing & Editing, Bryan Garner, 2016

    • And Numerous Other Ongoing Training

  • • Certified Divorce Financial Analyst, 2021

  • • AV Rated Preeminent - Peer Rated for Highest Level of Professional Excellence

    • New York Metro Super Lawyers

    • New York Metro Rising Star

  • • Before opening his practice in 2013, Corey was a partner in the firm of Wolfson Carroll & Shapiro, which is where he started his legal career in 2001.

  • • New York

    • U.S. District Court: Southern District of New York

    • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of New York

  • • Brooklyn Law School; J.D., 2000

    • University of Redlands; B.A., 1996