She’s got “skin in the game” now!
A $900-an-hour Manhattan divorce attorney — who’s repped stars like Uma Thurman and James Gandolfini — lost a major ruling when a judge broke the long-held legal precedent where the party with the most money pays the legal bills and ordered his client to bankroll her own case so that she would have “skin in the game.”
Now Robert Cohen’s client, Amanda Sykes, the unemployed wife of hedge fund big George Sykes, will have to dip into her own assets instead of relying on her husband’s deep pockets to fund her high-stakes divorce.
“I’m not just going to throw money at Mr. Cohen’s office just to feed them,” thundered George’s attorney, Harold Mayerson, in an interview with The Post.
“In two months they ran up 700,000 in legal fees. It was a feeding trough, and you know who eats from a feeding trough. Enough is enough!” Mayerson railed.
Over three years of battling, the Sykes’ have racked up $1 million in legal fees that have all come out of George’s pocket. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Matthew Cooper called the costs “astounding, even in the world of high-end matrimonials.”
George Sykes “has every incentive to curtail the litigation to the extent possible, even if that means accepting a settlement that falls short of what he wants. The wife, on the other hand, without any ‘skin in the game,’ does not have the same incentive insofar as her litigation costs are being paid for completely by her adversary,” Cooper said.
“Ironically, given that the husband is the party who now has the ‘heavier wallet,’ it is the wife who has the ‘distinct advantage’ because of her unfettered access to that wallet,” he ruled.
Cooper released $2 million in joint marital funds to pay each side’s fees. George, who runs GS Gamma Investments, is worth about $20 million.
Both law and legal practice dictate that the “court may direct the monied spouse to pay counsel fees to the lawyer of the nonmonied spouse” to make sure the litigation is “shaped not by the power of the bankroll but by the power of the evidence.”
Judge Cooper’s decision is the water cooler conversation among the city’s leading matrimonial attorneys.
“I think we will see it being argued in other cases,” said legal eagle Eleanor Alter, who’s client list includes Bethenny Frankel’s soon-to-be-ex Jason Hoppy and Mia Farrow in her split from Woody Allen.
“There’s no reason why he should have to use all his separate property to pay when she’s going to get substantial money,” Alter said. “It should be a cost for both of them, and that’s fair.”
After 14 years of marriage George filed for divorce against his wife in 2010, who lives in Paris with their son in a $16,500 a month pad in the landmark Palais-Royal across the the Louvre. He lives in $3.8 million Darien, Conn. manse with his girlfriend and their child.
Mayerson said that Amanda was demanding $1.5 million from her ex for the rest of her life in addition to half his fortune.
“She’s channeling Marie Antoinette. It’s greed,” Mayerson said.
Amanda’s attorney, Robert Cohen said he’s tried “very hard” to resolve the divorce case. He added that the judge will decide at trial which side will ultimately have to pay the $2 million in legal fees.