With a long record of leadership and accomplishment in the profession, Cynthia George is one of Connecticut's best known and most respected divorce attorneys. George and her longtime law partner, Samuel Schoonmaker, III, have over the last 12 years built one of the largest matrimonial-law practices in the state; their practice, based in Greenwich, today handles many of the region's highest-stakes cases - no small distinction, given that Fairfield County is home to the most affluent communities in the nation.

George combines her background as a litigator with a professional emphasis on handling and resolving complex cases before heading to court. Further, having assumed many leadership posts of the matrimonial bar, George has kept a fairly high profile throughout her career. Growing up in nearby Fairfield, the oldest of four daughters of a successful executive, George is in many respects a product of southern Connecticut's sophisticated yet competitive suburban culture; she followed her father and grandfather to Cornell, where she majored in government and, as an excellent athlete, played varsity field hockey and tennis ("What I did in the 70s bears no resemblance to women's college sports of today").

George earned her law degree from Loyola University of New Orleans ("It felt like another country for this Connecticut girl"), and, on graduation, joined the renowned firm of Cummings & Lockwood in its litigation group in nearby Stamford; she focused at first on contracts and labor litigation, but in time took on matrimonial cases, which at that large firm were assigned to the same group. Two mentors at Cummings and Lockwood were Schoonmaker, who later became the firm's managing partner, and Ian McLaughlin, a justice on Connecticut's Appellate Court. George was named a partner in 1986.

In 1997, after 17 years at the firm, she and Schoonmaker left and launched their own practice. (They've kept a good relationship with the Cummings firm, though, referring cases regularly.) Their new firm was a leader of Connecticut's divorce bar from the start, as both attorneys assumed key posts in the profession, both at the state level and nationally. Rather than pursue mad-dash growth, as many boutique firms often do, Schoonmaker, George & Colin has grown more selective of its cases, taking on today only the most challenging and complex. Their Holly Hill Lane office continues to be a center of productivity and focus, with seven lawyers, five paralegals and a first-rate support staff. Away from the office George enjoys golf and skiing; she and her husband Jeff Harris, when they can, get away to a home in Florida.