Best Lawyers in New York, United States for Family Law: Arbitration and Mediation
Heather Shulman focuses her practice on out-of-court dispute resolution for individuals and families throughout New York, New York. At Mason Law & Mediation LLC , she represents clients in Collaborative Law: Family Law matters, Family Law Mediation, and negotiated matrimonial and family law disputes. Her practice includes resolving complex divorce and custody matters through mediation, Collaborative Law, and traditional settlement negotiations, as well as preparing and negotiating prenupt...
Ani Mason is the founder of Mason Law & Mediation LLC in New York, New York, where she focuses her practice on Family Law Mediation and settlement negotiation. After being introduced in 2007 to a collaborative and resolution-focused approach to legal representation, Ani shifted her practice away from traditional courtroom litigation and toward helping individuals and families resolve disputes in a more private and constructive setting. Drawing on years of experience working with clients t...
Jessica L. Toelstedt joined Mason Law & Mediation LLC as a partner in 2025 and has practiced family and matrimonial law in New York for nearly twenty years. Before joining the firm, she was a partner at Berkman Bottger Newman & Schein, LLP, where she served as Co-Chair of the Mediation and Collaborative Law Practice. Jessica represents clients in matters involving Family Law, Collaborative Law: Family Law, and Family Law Mediation . After spending the first half of her career litigati...
Andrea Vacca has practiced family law in New York since 1993 and has spent more than two decades focused exclusively on non-adversarial resolution: collaborative divorce , divorce mediation , and prenuptial agreements . She founded Vacca Family Law Group on the conviction that court is rarely necessary and almost always costly, in money, privacy, and family relationships. Andrea is a past president of the New York Association of Collaborative Professionals , a member of the International Acad...
Jacqueline Newman is a lawyer recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice areas of Collaborative Law: Family Law, Family Law and Family Law Mediation. Jacqueline practices law in New York, New York Best Lawyers has recognized Jacqueline Newman since 2016. The Best Lawyers recognition is based on a peer-review survey of lawyers in the same geographic region and legal practice area. The recognition reflects the professional regard in which Jacqueline Newman is held by other lawyers.
With over 30 years in the legal field, my journey as a lawyer has been marked by a commitment to fostering resolution and understanding through Collaborative Law and Mediation. Unlike traditional legal paths, something about mediation and helping people in conflict find a better, more productive way to resolve their differences attracted me to Mediation and Collaborative law. While starting my career at a notable Fifth Avenue matrimonial litigation firm, I volunteered as a court mediator, wit...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.
