Shari B. Veisblatt has rapidly emerged as one of Southern New Jersey’s standout young divorce lawyers, establishing herself as a key practitioner - and, indeed, a true leader - at the 120-lawyer firm of Obermayer Maxwell Rebmann & Hippel. For starters, Veisblatt has largely, on her own, built a thriving regional practice in the Philadelphia firm’s Mount Laurel, NJ, office. She has more than 15 years of litigation experience in New Jersey courts. What’s more, she recently was elected to a second term on the firm’s 7-member management committee, and she is the first woman in the firm to serve in that capacity. All of this, while barely in her 40s, suggests that Veisblatt’s stature will continue to rise in the years ahead. “There are a lot of reasons for how I’ve gotten here,” says Veisblatt. “When I was young, I was a Type A student. Now I am a Type A lawyer. I make it a point to do more than the baseline, more than is generally required to ensure I receive the best possible result for my clients.”

And she focused on family law, too, based on a deep personal motivation: Her father, she says, got treated poorly by a state court system in a custody dispute from his first marriage; that experience marred family relationships for years, even decades, Veisblatt says. “It’s a big reason I do what I do today,” she says. “I wanted to be a part of making the family-law process better. I wanted to right a wrong.” Veisblatt’s father came to this country to attend college, married early, and within a few years was embroiled in a dispute familiar to millions of Americans: custody of a minor child. Despite that experience he bounced back, remarried and re-gained what his daughter calls “his positive outlook”; eventually owned Shaker Hardware store (named for his young daughters) in Philadelphia; he went on to succeed in sales, and moved to Bucks County, where Shari Veisblatt and her younger siblings grew up. She stood out for her drive from a young age: “Even at nine years old, I was creating savings plans so that our family could go on vacation. The trips were never lavish - but it meant a lot to me that I was able to contribute.” At Neshaminy High School (800 students in a graduating class, “a mini-city”) Veisblatt was laser-focused on setting ambitious goals - and meeting them. “Some said I was an obnoxious overachiever—often requesting extra credit assignments when I already had an A,” she says. “I’m not sure they were wrong.” She went on to University of Delaware, supporting herself by taking jobs at places like Iron Hill Brewery in Newark, Del., and at fast-food restaurants; quite famously, she became the youngest crew trainer in the history of Taco Bell at the time. “You’d be surprised how proud I am of that.” She majored in criminal justice, with a minor in Legal Studies. “I think I knew I would be a lawyer since kindergarten.” She demonstrated a unique self-reliance early on: She took a year at Rutgers-Camden as an undergrad, to save on tuition, returning to UD for her BA. She chose law school in Boston in part because New England College of Law was one of the first US law schools to admit women. During law school she worked for a small personal-injury practice of Spiro & Jorgensen; its principals showed their confidence in Veisblatt by sending her on last-minute depositions, and she gained valuable experience from it. After graduating, she spent a year as a judicial clerk in Passaic County for NJ Court Judge Garry S. Rothstadt; “That’s the year I learned there’s a path to being a good attorney - and also to being a bad attorney. I was able to watch the best of the best in the courtroom. I was very lucky to get my start there.” Her first job was with a Morristown boutique family law firm, and she was later recruited by the prestigious New Jersey firm of Riker Danzig, where she spent four “intense” years in the firm’s family law practice, also in Morristown. “I was able to hone my legal writing skills and my trial advocacy skills working with phenomenal attorneys at Riker.” Still in her early 30s, Veisblatt started a long dialogue with the family law department at Obermayer, whose family-law department was looking to expand in Southern New Jersey. Veisblatt, already confident in her skills and unafraid of promotion (“I’ve always been a big believer in betting on yourself”), accepted a position based near Philadelphia in Mount Laurel, NJ, conditioned on building a practice there. “There were no guarantees - I had to prove myself.”

Within a few years - after countless networking events and reach-outs to financial planners and real estate professionals - Veisblatt developed one of the bigger practices at Obermayer, which has 30-plus attorneys in its family law department. Moreover, she now is the lead partner in the firm’s Mount Laurel office; she was named a partner in 2017. She’s in her second term on Obermayer’s management committee, especially remarkable given she’s barely a decade at the firm. Her clients today range from business owners to white-collar executives to public-sector career professionals. Away from the office she and her husband, a Boston native, attend their young sons’ many sporting events and activities. And she is an enthusiastic world traveler: Before the pandemic she made trips to Spain, Israel and Ireland.