Divorces can be contentious — no one denies this. But it's one thing to shout at your future-ex during a custody hearing, and it's another to completely air their laundry in public. That's what Janice Schacter, wife of white-shoe New York City lawyer David Schacter, did and it cost her more than an unflattering profile in the New York Post.
David Schacter is a partner in the high-powered law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft. So it was quite a shock when his wife of almost 25 years decided to go on a rampage and complain to anyone who would listen over the course of her contentious years-long divorce that he was abusive and had blown over $200,000 on an engagement ring for his Playboy Bunny fiancee, Lace Rose Allenius, while stiffing his daughter out of hearing aid money.
Well that didn't sit well with the judge overseeing the case. The husband said the bad press hurt him professionally, and reduced the value of his law partnership from $5 million in 2007 to just $627,000 by the time the divorce trial started in 2012. In a ruling made public Tuesday, Justice Laura Drager agreed, and found that as a result, Janice should only get 17% of the $5 million value of the partnership — about $855,000.
She previously stood to collect about half, but "in essence, the wife chose to bite the hand that fed her," Drager wrote. "Although the court recognizes that the wife feels she was badly treated by the husband, her repeated attacks against him have played a part in diminishing his income."
Drager also called the couple's divorce "one of the most contentious litigations this court has ever presided over."
For more: Upper East Side woman gets less in divorce from lawyer ex because her public accusations hurt his business: judge (NY Post)