Stacy D. Phillips

As a nationally-recognized matrimonial and family law practitioner, Stacy D. Phillips, a Blank Rome LLP partner, handles primarily high-net-worth and high-profile cases. She won't identify clients, but she confirms that the roster over her years of practice has included Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston's former spouse; former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's wife; Britney Spears; Darryl Strawberry; and the former spouses of Axl Rose, Tori Spelling and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Power divorces often involve non-boldface individuals, she said. "A lot of my wealthiest clients are billionaires, not celebrities. You don't know their names. And the perception that celebrities are wealthy isn't always true."

She said her practice is currently "crazy busy," largely due to the effects of the pandemic. "Courts are very congested. We use retired judges, and they are beyond busy. This is an intense, combative time. In part, it's not so much the new filings as the fact that people are not resolving cases. People are frustrated because they can't control the world, so they try to control their little family circle."

Phillips added, "People living in close proximity have given rise to an increase in domestic violence." Phillips recently got a five-year restraining order--the lengthiest available--for a man whose former partner sent him a barrage of ugly text messages. "They were vicious, vitriolic and antisemitic. People think domestic violence has to be physical, but it can include anything that interferes with one's emotional calm."

That includes a relatively new classification of legally-recognized abuse known as coercive control, an expansion of the domestic violence category. "It often includes cases where someone severely restricts another's use of money," Phillips said. In the case over ugly text messages, the other side came back with a coercive control counterclaim, which Phillips said she successfully opposed.

Beyond the divorce court infighting, Phillips offers counsel on how to navigate marriage dissolutions. She's a regular contributor to the blog that her firm's matrimonial attorneys produce, titled Love Bytes. In April 2022, she wrote about problems associated with divorcing in Los Angeles' expensive housing market, where single family home values spiked over 30 percent during the pandemic.

That often makes it hard to maintain stability for children; Phillips pointed out that some parents keep the family home as a "nest" while they take turns at their own temporary places. She recommends that course for no longer than a year. And she strongly recommends that clients add a good real estate agent to their team.

"I'm more than a divorce lawyer," she said. "It's important to me to be a trusted advisor looking at the entire gestalt for clients."

- John Roemer