Lawrence Jay Braunstein

Lawrence Jay Braunstein is a partner in the law firm of Braunstein & Zuckerman, Esqs, in White Plains, New York. His practice includes the areas of Matrimonial and Family Law and related civil and criminal litigation. Since 1985 he has specifically focused his practice in the areas of child custody litigation and litigation involving allegations of child sexual abuse, physical abuse and abusive head trauma (shaken baby) in matrimonial, family and criminal cases.  

He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers; a Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers; Co-President of the NY Chapter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC-NY) and a member of the AFCC National Program Committee; Past President of the Association of Collaborative Lawyers of Rockland and Westchester; Past Co-Chair of the New York State Bar Association, Family Law Section, Child Custody Committee; Past Chair of the Westchester County Bar Association Family Law Section; Co-Chair of the Westchester County Bar Association, Family Law Section, Interdisciplinary Committee on Mental Health and Family Law; and Past Legal Chair of the New York State Interdisciplinary Forum on Mental Health and Family Law. He is also a member of the Board of Directors, and Vice President of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children-N.Y. Chapter; a member of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC); and a member of the Expert Faculty of the International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN). He serves on the Board of Editors of the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma, and is a contributor to the Journal of Child Custody.             

He regularly lectures as an invited speaker, both nationally and internationally, in the areas of child sexual abuse, physical abuse and shaken baby, child custody litigation, expert witness testimony, courtroom psychology, trial procedures, and on various other criminal, family and matrimonial law topics to judges, attorneys, medical and mental health professionals, law enforcement personnel (State and Federal), prosecutors (State and Federal), and child protection service personnel.             

Since 1999 he has served on the faculty of the New York City Police Department Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Investigation Course and, since 2014, on the faculty of the New York City Police Department Homicide Investigator Course. In 2004 he was the only defense attorney invited by the FBI to participate as a member of the working group to plan the International Online Child Sexual Victimization Symposium, and to present to both the working group and the Symposium. In 2008 he was a faculty member for a course entitled Expert Witness Testimony presented to the FBI Behavioral Analysis Units. In 2013 he was a member of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) Think Tank on Shared Parenting. He is presently an Adjunct Professor of Law at Hofstra University School of Law, Hempstead, New York.  

Since 2007 he has been named as one of the “Top Attorneys in the New York Metro Area” as published in the New York Times Magazine’s Super Lawyer Section, and one of the top Twenty-Five “Super Lawyers” in the Westchester County, New York, area. In 2014 he was rated “AV Preeminent” by the Martindale Hubbell Peer Review Ratings, indicating his high level of ethical standards and professional ability, generated from evaluations by other members of the bar and the judiciary in the United States and Canada. In 2018 he was included in “Best Lawyers in America”.                          

More information can be obtained at his website, www.bzesqs.com