Representative Cases and Matters for Dolores Gebhardt

In reaching settlements in Collaborative Divorce, it is important that both sides agree on sensible financial terms. Here, Dolores Gebhardt's client was a homemaker and mother; and the husband was a business development executive. As part of the settlement, Dolores' client received substantial maintenance for 9.5 years and full ownership of the house, and the husband will continue to pay mortgage and taxes until December, 2020.

An important objective of Collaborative Divorce lawyers is to find solutions that satisfy both sides as they seek a divorce on amicable terms. Here, Dolores Gebhardt's client was a homemaker and mother; the husband was an investment banker. The full team collaborative method involved retention of a neutral financial professional and a divorce coach. The matter settled in which Dolores' client received $1.2 million in equitable distribution.

Our lawyers sometimes represent clients in disputes over finder's and brokerage fees on real estate and business transactions. Here, Dina M. Aversano, together with Judge Sondra M. Miller and Dolores Gebhardt, wrote and prepared the appellate brief in the Appellate Division, Second Department, to seek to overturn the Supreme Court, Nassau County’s award, following a bench trial, of a $500,000 finder’s fee on a commercial real estate transaction. We argued that no such fee was warranted because of the lack of any causal relationship in the “finder’s” role in facilitating the eventual transaction. The Appellate Division Second Department awarded a downward modification of the fee.

Legal fees in matrimonial cases are often an important economic issue for both sides. Pickens is a complex case in which, among other things, defendant husband appealed Order Appointing Receiver of marital residence on the ground that the Order empowered the receiver to encumber the property. Defendant husband also appealed the trial court’s award of counsel fees and costs to Dolores Gebhardt's client as a sanction for the defendant making a frivolous motion. Dolores, representing the wife, successfully persuaded the Appellate Division, Second Department, to uphold the lower court determination on appeal.

McCarthy Fingar's lawyers are leaders in the legal community, and our Matrimonial & Family Law lawyers have been strong proponents of no-fault divorce. In fact, Judge Sondra M. Miller was an influential voice in the passage, in 2010, of the new no-fault divorce law. In Molloy, Dolores Gebhardt’s client was denied a divorce on the ground of abandonment. The decision became the basis for Dolores Gebhardt’s article on the law of abandonment entitled, "Justice Abandoned: Forty Years of Stalemate in Actions for Divorce on the Ground of Abandonment" 27 Pace Law Review 605 (2007).