Word: mitchelson
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Throwing the first punch against husband Mike Tyson last October, Robin Givens hired Marvin Mitchelson, the dean of American divorce gurus, to handle her much publicized breakup with the world heavyweight boxing champion. But Givens soon dropped the Los Angeles attorney and signed with Raoul Felder, 54, a New York City divorce lawyer who has won handsome settlements for the former wives of Mel Brooks, Martin Scorsese and Robin Leach, among others. For Felder to take charge of the season's most ballyhooed split seemed a fitting turnaround. Mitchelson, 60, who has recently been accused of professional misconduct and even...
...real estate magnate Sol Goldman, who has since died. But when Felder does go to court, says Peter Bronstein, a well-known Manhattan matrimonial lawyer, "he stands up and he yells and screams. People know he's there." The dapper Felder, who charges $450 per hour (compared with Mitchelson's $350), attributes his success in part to a no-nonsense way of handling the rich and famous. "You can't fawn over a celebrity," he insists. "Most of them are narcissistic, self-involved, with little insight into what's going on in their life. You have to be able...
Felder and Mitchelson actually have more than a little in common. Both men are married to former actresses and flaunt ostentatious life-styles. Both are energetic courtroom performers who run primarily on instinct. Quips Bronstein: "Neither could be mistaken for the editor of the Harvard Law Review." In fact, the two men in 1981 discussed merging their practices to form a bicoastal divorce powerhouse. But nothing came of the idea: neither attorney seemed to need the business...
These days, however, Mitchelson might want to reconsider. Since he won a highly publicized divorce settlement for actor James Mason's wife Pamela in 1964, Mitchelson has built a multimillion dollar practice helping the likes of Joan Collins, Tony Curtis and Zsa Zsa Gabor get unhitched. Perhaps Mitchelson's chief claim to legal fame was the concept of palimony, which he introduced by arguing in 1970 that Michelle Triola, Lee Marvin's live-in lover, might be entitled to some of the actor's property. The California Supreme Court endorsed the palimony principle...
...lately Mitchelson's luck has gone sour. Last year the newly aggressive State Bar of California accused him of serious offenses, including charging "unconscionable" fees and failing to return unearned portions of advance payments. He will have to answer the charges at a hearing, probably next spring. Should the charges stick, he could face punishment ranging from a reprimand to disbarment. As if that were not trouble enough, London-based Sotheby's has sued Mitchelson for failing to pay for an estimated $1 million worth of jewelry, formerly belonging to the Duchess of Windsor, that he bought at an auction...