Firm successfully obtained a large equitable distribution award and maintenance for a client after a contentious multi-day trial resulting in a 60 page decision. Husband attempted to argue that the parties were effectively divorced many years prior to the actual filing of a divorce action and that the wife, who raised the children in another state while the husband worked and lived in New York, was not entitled to an equal share of rental properties and other marital assets. Firm won equal distribution for the wife and an award of counsel fees from the husband as the Court ruled that the husband pressed forward for a trial without any basis in law thereby unnecessarily increasing legal fees for the wife.