Advocate Ira Edward Garr

Ira is recognized by both his colleagues and judges as one of the top matrimonial attorneys in New York. He has been listed as one of the “Best Lawyers in America” since 2008 and has received a Preeminent Rating for the past fifteen years for both legal ability and ethical standards (“AV”) in the Martindale Hubbell directory of attorneys. Ira has been named in the New York Times Magazine and New York Magazine “Super Lawyers” section as among the top attorneys in the New York Metropolitan Area since 2006.
Ira began his legal career as assistant counsel to the Judicial Relations Committee (the precursor of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct), investigating misconduct of Judges. Ira subsequently became employed as a law assistant to the Justices of the Appellate Division and ultimately served for two years as law secretary to the Honorable Arthur Markewich.
Ira entered private practice in 1978 initially as a commercial litigator. In 1985 Ira formed his own firm, primarily focusing on Family Law. Since that time Ira has been a frequent lecturer at the Bar Association and Continuing Legal Education programs. Ira has also served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at St. John’s Law School teaching a course in trial advocacy.
While Ira possesses experience as both a trial and appellate lawyer, his preference is that matrimonial matters should be settled by agreement. “An agreement is limited only by the parties’ and their lawyer’s creativity. A court is bound to follow the dictates of the Domestic Relations Law and cannot possibly fashion a decision with the detail and precision that fair minded attorney’s negotiating in good faith can structure.”
Nonetheless, Ira is often engaged by other matrimonial attorneys to act as trial or appellate counsel in complicated cases.
Although Ira’s clientele are generally high worth individuals and often celebrities, one of his proudest moments as an attorney was in a pro bono capacity representing the foster parents of two young children who were born to a heroin addicted birthmother who abandoned them. The birthmother’s cousin and husband cared for the children. After years of abandonment, the biological parents contested termination of their parental rights and the New York Social Service Agency (who had custody over the children) recommended return to the natural mother. In a trial that spanned over a year, Ira successfully represented the foster parents obtaining custody for them – an unprecedented result.