Draft:Harriet Newman Cohen

• Comment: See WP:BLP. Statements, starting with the date of birth, need to be sourced or removed.
  Please ensure any WP:COI is addressed. Greenman (talk) 19:03, 10 July 2025 (UTC)

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Harriet Newman Cohen (born December 8, 1932) is an American attorney specializing in divorce cases. She is a founding partner of Cohen Stine Kapoor LLP, a family law firm in New York City.

Early Life

Cohen was born on December 8, 1932, in Providence, Rhode Island, to Jewish immigrant parents from Ukraine and Poland. Her family moved to Brooklyn in 1945, where she later graduated from James Madison High School and Barnard College,B.A., cum laude, and Bryn Mawr College, M.A., in Latin. After raising four daughters and experiencing divorce herself, she entered Brooklyn Law School in the 1970s, launching a career in law at a time when female attorneys were still the exception in the courtroom.

Career

Harriet Newman Cohen began her legal career in New York in the early 1970s, completing her J.D. at Brooklyn Law School, where she was an Editor of the Law Review. She joined Phillips, Nizer, Benjamin, Krim & Ballon in 1976 where she worked in an environment shaped by prominent trial lawyer Louis Nizer. Cohen’s work in family law at the firm coincided with a period of growing professional interest in systemic reform of New York’s divorce statutes. During her time at Phillips Nizer, Cohen made major contributions to the enactment of the laws of equitable distribution and the modernization of marital property law, which had long relied on outdated title-based rules.

As legislative changes advanced, culminating in the passage of New York’s Equitable Distribution Law in 1980, Cohen’s expertise in the area of family law brought her high-conflict divorces, custody litigation, and asset distribution involving high net-worth individuals and their complex financial and personal lives. Cohen became a sought-after authority in the field not only by her clients, but also by bench and bar.

In 1984, Cohen co-authored a study analyzing 70 early trial-level decisions under New York’s new equitable distribution statute. The study documented case-specific patterns that suggested inconsistency and reluctance among some trial courts to fully embrace the law’s intent. It was published by the New York State Task Force on Women in the Courts as part of its effort to evaluate gender fairness in the judiciary and has been reprinted and cited countless times. Governor Mario M. Cuomo appointed her to his Child Support Commission, which drafted the 1989 Child Support Standards Act. She also was president of the New York Women's Bar Association and served on various committees in the courts, including the Matrimonial Mediation Subcommittee of the New York Supreme Court.

In 2021, she co-founded Cohen Stine Kapoor LLP, where she remains in active practice. In 1990, she had co-founded Cohen Hennessey Bienstock, a firm devoted exclusively to family and matrimonial law. That practice later evolved through several configurations, including Cohen Rabin Stine Schumann LLP.

In the early 1990s, Cohen represented a lesbian couple in a highly contested custody case involving a known sperm donor who sought parental access to a child born during the couple’s relationship. The litigation raised novel legal questions about the rights of non-biological same-sex parents and the standing of donors in post-conception disputes. The case, filed before legal recognition of same-sex parenting in New York, was one of the earliest of its kind and became part of the broader legal discourse surrounding LGBTQ+ family law and parentage. The case was chronicled in the 2021 miniseries Nuclear Family, which was shown on HBO in three installments.

Cohen has also represented a number of high-profile clients, including Andrew Cuomo, Tom Brady, Laurence Fishburne, Linda Lavin, Paul George, and the former wives of Harvey Weinstein and Howard Stern.

Cohen’s litigation experience includes being appointed attorney for the child in multiple cases in which children’s best interests are at stake. She has written for legal publications, participated in continuing legal education programs, and is well known for her contributions to professional efforts aimed at improving the administration of family justice in New York.

Personal Life

Cohen has four daughters as well as a blended family (step children). In 1983, she married Arthur Feinberg, a physician, in a religious ceremony in Manhattan. In 1992, her oldest daughter, Martha Cohen Stine, joined her legal practice, ultimately forming one of the first mother-daughter partnerships in the field of matrimonial law. Cohen has maintained long-standing ties with her extended family and has remained involved in the lives of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.  At the same time, she has not she continues to be at the forefront in representing her clients in negotiations, litigations, and appeals,  and her legal articles and commentary  have not diminished in scope or frequency.

Publications

Author, a memoir, Passion and Power: A Life in Three Worlds, Bloomsbury Academic, 2026

Co-author, The Divorce Book for Men and Women: A Step-by-Step Guide to Gaining Your Freedom Without Losing Everything Else, Avon Books, 1994