Michele R. Hart, Neighbor

I am Michele Hart, the Founder and Managing Attorney of M. Hart Divorce & Family Law. I have practiced law for over 25 years with 19 years dedicated exclusively to divorce and family law matters. At M. Hart Divorce & Family Law, we help people through one of the most difficult times in their lives who want to maintain future relationships with their soon to be ex spouses for the benefit of their children. We want our clients to be better off emotionally, financially, and legally protected for the future and able to avoid conflict down the road.

I am trained as a divorce and family mediator and collaborative divorce attorney, which optimizes my ability to find unique solutions to meet your particular goals. The real value of my services comes from my having those skills crucial to advocate and negotiate for clients: communication, negotiation, creative problem solving, and insight into human behavior.

Experience gained early in my career made me realize that my skill set and personal mission in life matched perfectly with family law.

Before attending law school, I worked in Washington, D.C. on behalf of multinational corporations spending time on Capitol Hill at congressional hearings and reported to clients on key federal legislation. Here is where I learned to break down key technical data and communicate succinctly and clearly to clients what they need to know and how they would be affected.

For the first six years of practicing law, I practiced in New York City, where I advised large multinational clients on how United States law would impact them when importing products into the United States. I became intimately familiar with the intricacies of all forms of corporate financial documentation, which enables me to quickly identify and process key financial data to obtain the best results for divorce and family law clients.

I gained key trial advocacy experience in a high profile case on behalf of Nissan when it first started importing the Nissan Pathfinder to the United States. Specifically, I researched and drafted the trial brief that was quoted word for word in the federal court opinion published in the New York Times awarding Nissan $30 million for damages from inaccurate classification of the Pathfinder by the United States Government as a truck instead of a passenger vehicle.

Further, by forming connections with key members of United States government agencies, I refined invaluable advocacy and high level negotiation skills that help achieve the best result for my clients.

I opened my own practice in 1999 so that I could develop closer personal connections with each client and make a meaningful impact on their lives. I chose to practice exclusively divorce and family law when I realized that my natural strength is in caring deeply about people and helping through tough times. I can’t help it. Even when I’m out in public and hear strangers arguing, I have to fight the urge to jump in and help them resolve things.

As my practice grew, I began to see more and more that when people choose to have the court impose legal obligations on them, they relinquish their ability to make their own choices and create results. I saw how the unpredictability of a court’s decision compounded the fear that they were already experiencing as a result of their divorce or separation.

Bar and Court Admissions:

 New Jersey

 New York

 U.S. Court of International Trade

 U.S. District Court (New Jersey)

 U.S. Court of Appeals for Federal Circuit



Education:

 J.D., Touro College, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Huntington, New York, 1992

 B.A., Economics, Stockton State College, Pomona, New Jersey, 1988

 Central and Northern New Jersey Family Inns of Court

 Worrall F. Mountain Inns of Court

Professional Associations and Memberships:

 New Jersey State Bar Association, sections on Family Law and Solo Practice

 Morris County Bar Association, Committees on Family Law and Solo Practice

 New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators

 International Academy for Collaborative Professionals

Community Involvement:

 Battered Women’s Legal Advocacy Project, Jersey Battered Women’s Shelter

 Legal Clinic at the Women’s Center of Morris County Community College

 Legal Clinic of Sussex County Project Self Sufficiency