A Manhattan matrimonial judge reminded an Upper East Side divorcee of an age-old saying when she slashed the woman’s take of her Playboy bunny-loving attorney hubby’s stake in a law firm from $2.5 million to $855,000.
“In essence, the wife chose to bite the hand that fed her,” Justice Laura Drager wrote in the decision released Tuesday.
Janice Schacter repeatedly attacked her husband in public, including telling The Post in 2011 that her ex, a partner at the white-shoe firm Cadawalader, Wickersham & Taft, bought his Playboy model fiancée a $215,000 diamond engagement ring while he refused to pay for his daughter’s $12,000 hearing aids.
Ira argued in his bitter, seven-year divorce battle that his wife’s behavior sullied his reputation and caused him to loss clients.
The judge agreed.
“Her repeated attacks against him have played a part in diminishing his income,” Judge Drager found.
The bad press resulted in Ira becoming “an involuntary contestant for the negative award for Lawyer of the Month” on the website Above the Law, Drager noted.
Without the fireworks Janice, who was an associate at a personal injury law firm before giving up her career to become a full-time mom, was due half of her husband’s $5 million partnership in the firm.
“This acrimonious divorce action presented one of the most contentious litigations this court has ever presided over,” Justice Drager ruled, noting that each side shouted during proceedings and even “ran out of the courtroom in the middle” of hearings.
“Although they achieved financial success, the parties were never happy in [20-year] their marriage,” Drager said.
She also berated Ira for his antics.
He was arrested for barging into his now 19-year-old daughter’s therapy session, grabbing scissors, pointing them at his chest and declaring that the teen “was stabbing him in the heart by her failure to communicate with him.”
A spokeswoman for Ira, 53, said his only comment was, “he now has a wonderful close relationship with both his son and daughter.”
The miffed mom blasted Judge Drager’s decision.
“I bit the hand the hurt me, not fed me,” Janice, 50, told The Post.
She noted that her ex has worked on “at least two, billion dollar deals that Cadwalader has issued press releases with his name on them.
“Would Cadwalader issue a press release with his name if he was toxic?” Janice asked.
But the ruling does not put Janice in the poor house. She was also awarded half of the former couple’s $10.5 million in other marital assets including proceeds from the sales of a $4.4 million Manhattan townhouse, a $4.5 million Bridgehampton summer home and $400,000 worth of jewelry.
Finally she’ll get up to $21,000 a month in spousal and child support plus the family Lexus.
Ira won the Jaguar, but he’s stuck paying the $240 AAA dues, according to the 41-page divorce decision.