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The law offices of
Dobrish Zeif Gross LLP

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757 Third Avenue,
New York,
New York 10017

Tel: 212-532-4000
Fax: 212-532-3153

The law offices of Dobrish Zeif Gross LLP

Welcome to the law offices of Dobrish Zeif Gross LLP

The law offices of Dobrish Zeif Gross LLP

Photographs of the offices at 757 Third Avenue, New York

Contact Information

The law offices of Dobrish Zeif Gross LLP are located at:

757 Third Avenue,
New York, New York 10017

Between 47th and 48th Street.
For directions please visit this page on Google maps;
www.google.com/maps

Email for general enquiries info@dobrishlaw.com

The law offices of Dobrish Zeif Gross LLP

Photographs of the offices at 757 Third Avenue, New York

Partners’ Statement

Our practice is devoted exclusively to matrimonial and family law, including divorce, custody, visitation, paternity, child and spousal support, pre/post nuptial agreements, separation agreements, cohabitation and dissolution agreements, neglect and abuse proceedings and appeals. We also practice Collaborative Law and, on occasion, are involved in the mediation of disputes.

The attorneys at DZG are recognized as both superb litigators and excellent negotiators. Our proven and well-known ability to successfully litigate both financial and custody issues greatly increases our ability to obtain favorable settlements through negotiation, which is achieved in the vast majority of our cases.

We generally handle cases which involve complex financial issues, including valuation of licenses, professional practices and business interests and celebrity goodwill for our clients, many of whom are high net worth individuals. We represent clients involved in difficult custody and visitation disputes, including international parental kidnapping and relocation matters. While we pride ourselves on being strong and aggressive adversaries, we are also extremely mindful of the effects of the disputes we handle on the lives of the children involved. We have been recognized as leaders in this field. Our attorneys are active in professional organizations and lecture and write extensively concerning those issues. In these highly charged and extremely emotional matters, both the Courts and our peers have turned to our attorneys for guidance in resolving seemingly intractable custody and visitation issues as well as complex economic disputes.

Whether we are called upon to litigate or negotiate, we take pride in structuring and executing creative, well-planned strategies to achieve our clients' goals, thereby enabling them to move forward with their lives.

“While we pride ourselves on being strong and aggressive adversaries, we are also extremely mindful of the effects of the disputes we handle on the lives of the children involved.”

Robert Z. Dobrish
Senior Partner

Robert Z. Dobrish, the senior partner in the firm, is known as one of the premier matrimonial attorneys in New York. He is a graduate of Columbia College and New York University School of Law, where he was a John Norton Pomeroy Scholar. Following law school he worked in corporate law, became a staff attorney for the Vera Institute for Justice, and then worked as a criminal defense attorney before concentrating on family law-related matters.

Mr. Dobrish has taught at Cardozo Law School, lectured extensively before diverse groups (lawyers, judges, accountants, mental-health professionals and the general public) and has written numerous articles and book reviews for professional journals. Copies of some of these articles are available on this website. He has been active in bar associations having served as chair of the Committee on Matrimonial law of the New York County Lawyers Association and a long time member of the Executive Committee of the Family Law Section of the New York State Bar Association. He has served on the Matrimonial Law Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York on three separate occasions, each for three year terms and he has been a member of the Judiciary Committee of that Association as well. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, has served on two occasions as Vice President of the New York Chapter, and is a long time member of the Chapter's Board of Managers. He is one of the founding members of the Interdisciplinary Committee on Family Law and Mental Health. He has consistently been named by New York Magazine as one of the Best Lawyers in New York, and by Woodward White as one of the Best Lawyers in America.

Mr. Dobrish has represented husbands, wives, children, parents, grandparents, relatives - the entire gamut of persons involved in intra-familial disputes. He has tried numerous cases in both the Supreme and Family Courts and has argued numerous appeals, some of which raised novel and/or important issues relating to family law.

“Handling the emotionally challenging and complex issues involved in matrimonial cases requires not only excellent litigation and negotiation skills, but also the experience, compassion and judgment to guide our clients through a difficult process. We pride ourselves on our ability to use our legal skills to attain the best result possible for our clients, thereby enabling them to move forward with their lives.”

Robert S. Zeif
Partner

Robert S. Zeif is a graduate of Long Island University and Brooklyn Law School. Following his admission to the Bar he served as an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County, New York, as an Assistant Corporation Counsel in the New York City Law Department, and as Associate Counsel to the Chancellor and Associate Director of the Office of Legal Services of the Board of Education of the City of New York. In these positions, Mr. Zeif litigated high profile cases in both state and federal court. In addition to being an experienced litigator, he is also trained in Collaborative Law, a method of alternative dispute resolution.

After leaving government service Mr. Zeif entered private practice, where, for more than 30 years, he has concentrated on family law matters. He has tried matrimonial and family law matters in both Supreme Court and Family Court, and has argued appeals in the Appellate Division, as well as in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Mr. Zeif is a member of the Family Law Sections of the American Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association. He has served as a member of the Matrimonial Committee, as well as the Committee on State Courts of Superior Jurisdiction of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. He has lectured on various topics in matrimonial law, including religious issues. He has been repeatedly selected as one of the Best Lawyers in New York in the field of family law, and is listed in the Woodward White directory of Best Lawyers in America. He has also been included in the listing of Super Lawyers in family law in the New York area.

“In these highly charged and extremely emotional matters, both the Courts and our peers have turned to our attorneys for guidance in resolving seemingly intractable custody and visitation issues.”

Nina S. Gross
Partner

Nina Gross joined the Dobrish firm after she worked at the Juvenile Rights Division of the Legal Aid Society, representing children in various types of family situations. She is a graduate of Barnard College and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

She has served on the Family Law Committee, Matrimonial Law Committee and the Council on Children of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. She is a member of the New York State Women's Bar Association, the American Association of Family and Conciliation Courts and the Family Law Section of the New York State Bar Association. She is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

Ms. Gross has written for the Family Law Review and has lectured for the Family Law Section of the New York State Bar Association.

“We are dedicated to improving the practice of law and the treatment of litigants and children in changing family structures.”

Barbara Handschu
Special Counsel

Barbara Ellen Handschu, Special Counsel to the firm, is recognized as a leader in the national matrimonial bar associations. She is a graduate of New York University where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She was graduated from the law school of the University of Michigan. After law school she handled civil rights and criminal law cases, including the defense of the Attica prisoners which led her to establish an office in Buffalo, New York. She started her concentration in family law-related cases, both trials and appeals, in the late 1970's.

Ms. Handschu has been very active in national and statewide bar associations. She was national President of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers after serving some six years as the Academy's Vice-President, First Vice-President and President-Elect. She was Editor-in-Chief of the Academy Journal (a law review publication) and continues to serve on the Journal Board where she has been an Editor since its inception. Ms. Handschu was the first woman to be elected to Chair the Family Law Section of the New York Bar Association. She also was the first woman to serve as President of the New York State chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

A founding Diplomate of the American College of Family Trial Lawyers (limited to 100 family law practioners in the U.S.) Ms. Handschu also was a founding Fellow of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. Ms. Handschu has lectured extensively throughout the United States to diverse audiences, including lectures to the judiciary on such issues as interstate child custody jurisdiction and the relocation of children. She regularly presents to New York Judges at their Judicial Seminars. She has published articles on family law matters including appellate oral advocacy, relocation of children, jurisdictional disputes and trial presentations. She has a bi-monthly column in the National Law Journal on unique family law issues.

For more than two decades Ms. Handschu taught and co-chaired the American Bar Association's Advanced Family Law Trial Advocacy Institute at the University of Houston. She estimates that she has trained more than 1,000 lawyers to be more effective family law trial lawyers during that time. Ms. Handschu has served on the Joint Editorial Board of The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, since the Board was created as a family law "think tank." She was responsible for the introduction and ultimate enactment of New York's Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act.

Ms. Handschu has represented individual clients in family law disputes. She has served in an advisory capacity to lawyers in New York and elsewhere and also has appeared in all four of the Appellate Courts throughout New York State. She has been featured in Super Lawyers and been named by Woodward White as one of the Best Lawyers in America.

Associates

Steven Leshnower

Mr. Leshnower is a graduate of New York University and received his law degree from Brooklyn Law School. He is admitted in New York.

Erin McMurray-Killelea

Ms. McMurray-Killelea is a graduate of Smith College and then received a Master’s Degree in History. Thereafter, she received her law degree from Brooklyn Law School. She is admitted in New York.

Samantha Slepowitz

Ms. Slepowitz is a graduate of Union College and received her law degree from Hofstra University. She is admitted in New York.

Christopher Dylewski

Mr. Dylewski is a graduate of Hunter College and received his law degree from Brooklyn Law School. He is admitted in New York.

“We take pride in structuring and executing creative, well-planned strategies to achieve our clients’ goals, thereby enabling them to move forward with their lives.”

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Articles

1.	"Rethinking the Braiman Doctrine," NY Domestic Relations Reporter, Vol. l No. 4 (l989)
2.	"Representing the Father Who is Accused of Child Sexual Abuse," Family Law Quarterly, Vol. XXIII, No. 3 (l989)
3.	"The Identification, Valuation and Distribution of Human Capital," Family Law Review, Vol. 24, No. 2 (1992)
4.	"Evidence Needed to Prove a Child Custody Case", New York Law Journal, August, l996
5.	"Hell No We Won't Go - Children Who Refuse to Visit", New York Law Journal, July, 1999
6.	"The Bankruptcy Automatic Stay: It's Not the End of the World - Or the End of the Case", Journal of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, Vol. 16, No. 1, 1999
7.	"Judicial Alchemy: Turning Losses into Marital Assets", Vol. 32, Family Law Review, No. 1, Spring, 2000
8.	"Rights to the Mine: Digging Into Separate Property", New York Law Journal, November, 2001
9.	"Zones of Responsibility: A Judicial Beacon in Custody's Dark Passageway", Vol. 36, NYSBA Family Law Review, No. 1, Spring, 2002
10.	"Voluntary Support Payments: Let the Generous Beware", New York Law Journal, October, 2003
11.	"The Role of Mental Health Professionals in Custody Evaluations", New York Law Journal, November 2004
12.	"Contested Child Custody Cases", New York Law Journal, December 2004
13.	"A Lawyer's Considerations in Selecting a Mental Health Expert". A Handbook of Divorce and Custody. Forensic, Developmental and Clinical Perspectives. Chapter 2. 2005
14.	"Custody Evaluations. The Role of the Mental Health Professional". The Matrimonial Strategist, April 2005
15.	"Mental Health Professional Testimony in Child Custody Cases", New York Law Journal, April 2005
16.	"Judging Child Custody Evaluations", New York Law Journal, April 2006
17.	"The Soul of Sole Custody", New York Law Journal, September 2008
18.	"Pretrial Approaches to Divorce and Custody in New York", New York Family Law Strategies, 2009

Book Reviews

19.	The Best Interests of the Child, New York Law Journal, Nov., 1996
20.	New York Family Court Practioner, New York Law Journal, Feb.,1997
21.	Legal and Mental Health Perspectives on Child Custody Law: A Deskbook for Judges New York Law Journal, April, 1999