Marilyn Chinitz Top Divorce Lawyer

 

 

Tom Cruise & Michael Douglas

 

During thirty-nine years as one of America’s top divorce lawyers, representing high-profile clients including Tom Cruise and Michael Douglas, Marilyn Chinitz has witnessed many changes in family law. And now, her practice has morphed in unexpected ways due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

Virtually Everything Is Online

 

“Now almost all court proceedings are online — court hearings, trials, depositions,” says the Blank Rome partner. These virtual practices, with the exception of trials, are here to stay, Chinitz believes, because it’s cost-effective and efficient. Divorcing parties are assigned a specific virtual time slot as opposed to staying in the courtroom for hours waiting for their case to come up. But Chinitz finds there is also a downside. “Trying to negotiate and resolve things in the back room when you have time to spend with the adversary waiting for your case to be called has become a lost opportunity now.” she says. 

 

Lawyers Are Available 24/7

 Litigation has not slowed down amid the pandemic. With attorneys working from home, clients have access to counsel at any time of day. “The phone will ring at 6 a.m. on a Saturday,” Chinitz laughs. She answers. She has a client in Hong Kong with whom she speaks at 6 a.m. because it’s evening over there. 

 

Pandemic Finances 

The pandemic’s disruption has wreaked havoc on divorcing parties. Agreements based on business valuations that have now dropped precipitously due to Covid, requiring distribution of assets that no longer exist, need to be amended. Some people no longer have enough income to meet their support obligations; others contemplating divorce are now considering waiting until things pick up financially. 

 

Private Judges

With courts unavailable, divorcing couples are hiring private judges, usually retired judges, to arbitrate their cases. 

 

Philosophy: Consider the Options

Chinitz tries to get clients to consider their options before moving ahead with a divorce. “You can educate them as to whether or not divorce is something that they want to embark on,” she says. After hearing why clients think they want a divorce, she sometimes presents a different scenario. “I extrapolate what their motivations are and how they’re thinking,” Chinitz explains. “You know right away if somebody says, I’m done, I want to move on, but you also know if somebody is hesitant and making decisions without really having full knowledge or having done their due diligence.

 

Impact on Children

For one thing, divorce has a tremendous impact on children. Some work with parental coordinators, who help to broker solutions. “I like the idea of people at least trying to be  cooperative,” Chinitz says. “Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t.”

Colorful Career 

 

Chinitz’s colorful career has included some wild cases like a CSI-level extraction of a prenuptial agreement from a safe deposit box in the World Trade Center that had melted in the 9/11 attack and hiring a beautiful female private investigator in Rome to pose as a bride in order to locate a child illegally taken by his mother to Italy, where a relative ran a wedding dress atelier. “You look back, and think, Wow, this is like a movie!” Chinitz laughs. “ There isn’t a story I haven’t heard.”

 

Uncovering a Murder

 

In another astonishing case, Chinitz uncovered the murder of an Orthodox Jewish woman found dead in her Manhattan home and buried immediately without an autopsy, in the midst of an ugly divorce. Chinitz reviewed the circumstance of evidence uncovered by investigators, then she had the family hire and discuss the case with her partner, Geraldine Ferraro — yes, the vice presidential candidate in 1984. When the widower denied the dead woman’s family access to his children, they consulted Chinitz. “They told me the story of her divorce, and after a very extensive meeting, I said, ‘You’ve buried your sister. I think you buried the evidence. I think the husband killed her.’” The private investigators discovered compelling circumstantial evidence and went to the district attorney and obtained an order to exhume the body. The cause of death was determined to be homicide by neck compression, and the ex-husband was eventually convicted in 2019. A reporter has recently written a book about the case. 

 

Philanthropy & Entertaining

Chinitz lends her expertise to a variety of charitable causes, sitting on the boards of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, the Foundation for Gender Equality, WHAM (Women’s Health Access Matters), and K9s4COPs, which trains German shepherds for police departments. 

blankrome.com  212. 885.5564