Joel Weissman Always Wins the War of the Roses
HATE THEM IF YOU WILL, BUT LAWYERS ARE THE REAL GUNSLINGERS OF MODERN DAY. AND IN SOUTH FLORIDA, SOME OF THEM ARE MORE FAMOUS THAN THEIR CLIENTS.
If you want divorce without war there's no point getting Joel Weissman. You want an all-out assault-air strikes and ground troops-that's when you hire the West Palm Beach-based lawyer.
Despite the tailored French-cuffed shirt that's de rigueur for pricey divorce lawyers, Weissman, 51, stills looks very much the street fighter. But then he has third-degree black belts in several forms of martial arts including Kung Fu and Jujitsu.
Built solid and low to the ground, the former prosecutor is your man if: A) You're trying to pry that 6-carat brilliant-cut rock, custom bedspread and 20-speed bicycle from your exfiancée, like construction mogul Dan Catalfumo, or, B) You're a suspicious but quick-thinking wife who decides to have the bed sheets checked for DNA evidence of infidelity, in the vein of Loxahatchee dressage competitor Nanette Sexton Bailey.
Weissman, who aptly has his office in what is known downtown as the Darth Vader building, has gleefully cultivated a reputation as a pugnacious, high-stakes divorce lawyer. Though it would be gauche to revel in it. "I still don't realize I'm a celebrity divorce lawyer," Weissman says.
But then there are all those appearances on CNN's Burden of Proof, 20/20, 48 Hours, Inside Edition and newspapers across the country.
Weissman's latest case has been making headlines around the world and was even featured in People magazine. It involves the wife of the former chief of Massachusetts Financial Services, Richard Bailey.
Even in the milieu of nasty divorces, a 74-year-old man allegedly caught with his pants down by a wife who decided to DNA-test the bed sheets rather than just boo-hoo about it is an attention grabber.
You don't need grounds for divorce anymore in Florida, but Weissman is trying to use the adultery
claim to trigger an amendment to the Baileys' marital agreement. Weissman's client, the fourth
Mrs. Richard Bailey, accuses her husband of a dalliance with one his previous wives. If Weissman prevails, his client would get a bigger share of Richard Bailey's fortune as well as alimony.
The husband's attorney, Jeffery Fisher of West Palm Beach, has come up with an interesting legal angle of his own: The divorce can't proceed because the husband is out of his mind with advanced dementia.
The case that launched Weissman's career as the divorce lawyer for the wickedly wealthy was no less titillating. In 1990, Weissman represented James Sullivan, a Jay Gatsby-type character accused of offing his estranged first wife by hiring a hit man disguised as a florist who appeared at her door with a dozen pink roses. Sullivan's second wife, the exquisitely exotic Suki Sullivan, worried she might not survive the marriage either after her husband allegedly admitted that he really did kill his first wife, socialite Lita Sullivan of Buckhead, Georgia.
Weissman was up against his former law partner and early role model, Ronald Sales, who represented Suki, a native of Korea. But when Weissman was finished, Suki came out of the marriage with little more than the pantyhose on her size 0 self; she even lost the lap dog, Coco.
James Sullivan now is on the lam for murder charges. No word on Coco.
Since that case, there have been other rich clients and more outrageous headlines. There was Ruth Dean, second wife of the late auto dealer Roger Dean, whose request for temporary support included private jet flights to Manhattan to get her hair done; Catalfumo on two previous trips to the altar that went awry; and marital splits involving an heir to the Exxon fortune and a partner in the New York Yankees.
The rich get divorced for the same reasons as everybody, Weissman says. The romance is dead, there's an affair or two or there's abuse in the forms of physical, psychological, alcohol or substance. But the stakes are a lot higher. Instead of debating who has to take over payments on the Hyundai, they're splitting up Bentleys, Bugattis and Aston Martins.
And Weissman is in for the fight-tooth, nail, depositions and asset allocation experts-no matter how absurd the object of the dispute might seem to outsiders. It's not his place to judge what's meaningful to his clients.
"I'm an aggressive, in-your-face lawyer who passionately represents his clients," Weissman says. "The passion is no less great if it's children involved, dogs involved or a television involved."
Boca Magazine
January/February 2002
by Stephanie Smith
photos by Andrew Itkoff
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