If you need a caring, compassionate, and experienced attorney who can help you move through separation, divorce, and life beyond, we should meet. I seek to resolve your legal issues in an amicable and respectful way, while always providing you with strong advocacy.
About Rhonda J. Panken
BAckground
I am an experienced litigator, a family mediator, and a collaborative attorney who brings more than 25 years of family and matrimonial law expertise to my work. My practice is exclusively devoted to resolving family law and matrimonial issues for clients so they can move on with their lives.
As a Senior Staff Attorney at the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG), I represented clients in custody, visitation, support, domestic violence and matrimonial matters. There, I developed and implemented its Economic Empowerment Project. When later promoted to Supervising Attorney, I supervised NYLAG’s Matrimonial Project. Subsequently, I was an Associate at Levinson & Kaplan, a boutique Manhattan firm, and a Domestic Violence Staff Attorney at the Legal Aid Society’s Domestic Violence Project.
Most recently, I was the Supervising Attorney at Her Justice, (formerly inMotion Inc.), which provides legal services to families in crisis. In this position, I trained and mentored some of New York City’s leading law firm attorneys in their pro-bono representation on behalf of women confronting complex matrimonial and family law issues, including domestic violence, custody, support and more.
Currently
Currently, I head the Law Offices of Rhonda J. Panken, Esq. I am a member of the Family Law Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA) and I serve on the V-B Fee Arbitration Committee for Suburban New Jersey.
Licensed to practice law in New York and New Jersey, I received my Juris Doctor from Brooklyn Law School in 1993. I am deeply involved in the South Orange/Maplewood community, where I live with my family. I serve as counsel to the Maplewood Chamber of Commerce and have volunteered my legal services at Essex Newark Legal Services and for Partners for Women and Justice. My success in reunifying a domestic violence survivor with her 5 children was featured on probononj.org. I recently served a four-year term as a member of Essex County’s V-B Ethics Board in New Jersey.
Trained in mediation and collaborative divorce, I conduct mediation sessions and participate in collaborative negotiations. I have volunteered with NYLAG’s Mediation Project, advising low-income clients in matrimonial matters who have mediated their disputes.
I am a member of a local women’s Triathlon team, the After Party Tri Team, and have completed several triathlons and races with the team.
Published Decisions
Travis v. Murray, 977 N.Y.S. 3d 621 (N.Y. S.Ct. 2013)
Landmark decision regarding dog custody dispute in a Manhattan matrimonial matter, setting a new legal standard for treating the family pet as “more than a piece of property.” Read Full Case
press coverage:
M.G. v. C.M., NYLJ 1202792223427, at *1 (Sup., KI, Decided June 2, 2017); 2017 NY Slip Op 50745 (U); 55 Misc 3d 1223(A)
After hearings between the New York and New Mexico Courts in an interstate custody matter, New York Court dismissed Mother’s divorce for lack of jurisdiction. The child was ordered returned to New Mexico, where my client, the Father, lives. Read Full Case
N.J. Div. of Youth & Family. Servs. v. D.S.H., 425 N.J. Super 228 (App. Div. 2012)
Reversal of the unnecessary termination of my client, the Mother's, parental rights to her young daughter so that the non-biological, legal father could adopt her. The New Jersey Appellate Court held "two parents are better than one, even if one parent falls far below the ideal." Read Full Case