PRESS COVERAGE
Monday, February 16, 1998 - Daily News: Own split inspired divorce consultant
Combat experience gained against best
By Salvatore Arena
Margery Rubin knew husband Robert Stephan Cohen’s reputation as a tough guy. After all, she was married to one of the city’s top divorce lawyers.
But she didn’t know her own bitter split from the hard-boiled matrimonial brawler would put her into the divorce business, too.
Rubin founded and now runs DivorceSource, a firm that helps men and women through the hardest part of marriage: the end.
“What gives me credibility is that I came out ahead of the game,” she said.
Her husband’s aggressive legal tactics had paid off through the years for both his well-heeled clientele and his family: The couple had posh city and country digs they shared with their three sons.
But in 1990, after 22 years of marriage, Rubin was stunned when Cohen asked for a divorce. She suddenly found herself in a fight on his well-worn turf: the Manhattan matrimonial court where he litigated some of his biggest cases.
“People were constantly telling me he would kill me,” Rubin said. “They said, ‘You’ll never survive.’ It made me dig in my heels even more.”
The ex-advertising executive ended up winning a sizable settlement in the two-fisted fight. And she found a new career.
These days, Rubin charges $400 for a two-hour consultation, during which she tells divorcing clients how to pick a lawyer, how to deal with financial issues and how to build a successful negotiating strategy.
Her own case taught her a lot about “the mentality of killer divorce lawyers,” she said. “Attack is part of their method of operation. That was [Bob’s] reputation, of course.”
Cohen, 58, who declined interview requests, started as a protege of political fixer Roy Cohn, then one of the city’s craftiest lawyers.
From Cohn, he adopted a take-no-prisoners style that has brought the high and mighty to his door. Music honcho Tony Mottola, publishing power Joni Evans, Wall Street buyout king Henry Kravis, supermodel Christie Brinkley and socialite Sandy Pittman have been among his better-known clients.
A recent article in Town & Country magazine about America’s best divorce lawyers mentioned Cohen’s name first. In it, he crows about his biggest win, a $200 million cash settlement for an unnamed client, and boasts of scaring a client’s husband into a deal by reputation alone.
“He’s very, very smart, and he doesn’t give up,” said Eleanor Alter, another top-drawer divorce practitioner. “It’s very hard to bring him to the table.”
The Cohen-Rubin divorce dragged on for nearly four years. Despite their time together, Rubin knew little about the process. She hired and fired one lawyer and hired another.
She said figuring out the value of her husband’s partnership at the Manhattan firm of Morrison Cohen Singer and Weinstein was her biggest challenge. The hard-fought battel went to trial – then suddenly ended when Rubin produced a key witness who provided evidence that Cohen lowballed his wealth.
“When you get down to it, there had to be facts,” Rubin said. “I happen to [be] very well organized. I had everything in order financially.”
Battle-scarred but victorious, Rubin decided to assist others. Most of her clients are upper-middle-class women whom she finds “frightened” and “intimidated” by divorce.
“I realized I could make a contribution and could help people,” Rubin said.
Cohen is thriving, too. He’s still among the highest-paid lawyers in New York. Both Marla Maples Trump and Patricia Duff, wife of billionaire Ronald Perelman, turn to him first to handle cases, though he has since parted ways with both.
And he hasn’t soured on matrimony. Cohen took a new bride on Feb. 5, a Wall Street executive who is about 20 years younger than him.
