Kristina Royce

Royce co-chairs one of the largest matrimonial & family law practices in the country, leading a bi-coastal group of 35 attorneys at Blank Rome. She represents a client list of Hollywood celebrities, professional athletes, C-suite executives and high-net-worth clients in complex financial and custody matters. Royce's expertise is in handling intricate financial valuations, tracings and cash flow analyses, mediations and pre- and post-nuptial agreements.

Her clients have sophisticated estates with complex assets such as intellectual property, music catalogues and branding rights. Royce appreciates the challenge of working through the complex financial puzzle of marital dissolutions.

"I very much enjoy taking a case and figuring out the character of the assets," she said. "A lot of times people get married and they already have substantial assets, so we have to deal with tracings, or how to deal with valuations, or how to divide assets."

Of course, divorce is an emotionally charged and difficult process. Royce's philosophy in handling these matters is to help keep things calm, private and respectful.

"I know things are really hard for people--they're scared financially, they're sad about not spending time with their kids, upset and resentful about creating a balance sheet that's now being divided in half," she said. "I think the more we act like our best selves through this, the better chance we have of coming out of it with a decent settlement, an ability to co-parent and be respectful to one another."

Royce currently represents the husband in a Hollywood couple whose divorce has been ongoing for several years. She handled custody arrangements made challenging by the famous parents' busy schedules. She's now focused on helping the parties agree on a percentage split of the husband's ownership interest in a hit franchise. Royce has helped her client avoid a contentious public trial, and the parties appear to be closing in on a settlement agreement.

For such high-profile clients, privacy is especially important, particularly when children are involved. Using private judges has become much more common over the last decade, she said, and can help keep matters out of court and the public eye.

Royce is a big proponent of financial intimacy between marriage partners. Though it may not be romantic, it's helpful to think of marriage like a business partnership, she said. A good business partnership defines how finances will be managed. Particularly as people get married later in life--having already established a career and a pool of assets--a pre-nuptial agreement can be a benefit to both parties.

"When I work on pre-nups--and I wish we called them partnership agreements, because I think pre-nup carries a negative connotation--if I can encourage people to have financial intimacy, it builds a stronger marriage. Then they treat each other as true partners, and treat each other with more respect," she said.

"Even if you don't have an agreement, I believe it's important to have this level of transparency and intimacy when it comes to finances."

- JenniferChungKlam