Robert Stephan Cohen

Robert Cohen is one of America’s leading matrimonial lawyers.

He has represented clients in some of the most important financial and custody disputes in the New York courts and beyond. Mr. Cohen regularly represents the most accomplished individuals and their spouses in the fields of finance, real estate, business, public service, and entertainment. Due to his extensive record of accomplishment and reported decisions, he also frequently represents individuals in significant matrimonial matters outside New York—including in Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, Missouri, the State of Washington, and internationally in Europe. He has lectured the legal community in the United States, Europe, and Hong Kong.

While he regularly appears in court and has a well-earned reputation as a skilled trial lawyer, the preponderance of Mr. Cohen’s matters are settled by negotiation or mediation. In addition to the many significant matrimonial settlements that he has negotiated, Mr. Cohen has also represented countless individuals in negotiating prenuptial and postnuptial agreements.

Mr. Cohen is the author of the “anti-divorce book” Reconcilable Differences published by Simon and Schuster and is a sought-after lecturer on issues relating to divorce. For the past seventeen years, he has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, where he teaches a course titled “Anatomy of a Divorce.” In 2019, he was formally honored on the walls of Penn Law School for his continuing support of students, faculty, and staff.

Mr. Cohen has been recognized by the New York Times as one of the most important divorce lawyers in the United States and he has been profiled by the Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Business Insider.

In 2016, Governor Cuomo named Mr. Cohen as the Chairperson of the Judicial Screening Committee for the First Judicial Department, which encompasses Manhattan and the Bronx. He also designated him as a member of the State Judicial Screening Committee. In 2016, Judge Peter H. Moulton, then Administrative Judge of the Supreme Court, New York County, appointed Mr. Cohen as chairperson of the Court’s Matrimonial Committee. In 2018, Mr. Cohen was reappointed by Judge Deborah H. Kaplan, who then succeeded Judge Moulton as Administrative Judge. In that same year, he was appointed by Justice Alan Scheinkman as a special master in the Alternative Dispute Resolution Pilot Program in the Second Judicial Department. In 2019, Mr. Cohen was appointed by the Appellate Division, First Department to serve on the Attorney Grievance Committee which investigates, reviews, and prosecutes complaints of attorney misconduct.

Mr. Cohen is a member of the American College of Family Trial Lawyers and a fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. His biography appears annually in The Best Lawyers in America, Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, Best Lawyers in New York, and Super Lawyers. Chambers has placed him in its highest category of matrimonial lawyers and The Lawyer Network, based in the U.K., has in 2021 designated him as the most important matrimonial lawyer in New York State. In 2024 Forbes magazine included Mr. Cohen in its inaugural edition of “Top Lawyers” as one of the 200 most important lawyers in the United States.

Mr. Cohen lives with his wife, Stephanie Stiefel in New York City and Westchester County, N.Y., and has four adult children. He has completed seven marathons and was an officer in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps.