Now at the top of the profession, Jim Sexton has earned a reputation as one of Southern New York’s most aggressive and accomplished divorce lawyers. Indeed, by many accounts he’s become one of the most sought-after lawyers in the specialty. With a focus, a natural resourcefulness and a rare level of energy, Sexton has built a successful matrimonial practice based in New City, NY; he maintains offices in Manhattan. With many media appearances (check out the lively hour-long interview of him on YouTube), his public persona has exploded in recent years.

Sexton’s personality and temperament are, by all accounts, ideally suited to divorce law, which requires broad knowledge, a genuine interest in people, and an understanding and respect for what’s often an arduous legal process. Thus he loves every detail of his work. Says he: “If I wasn’t practicing matrimonial law, I don’t think I’d be a lawyer.”

While an undergraduate college student, Sexton majored in psychology and was for two years student body president, all the while working two jobs: He waited tables at a nearby Steak & Ale (“Customers yelling about their $6.99 prime rib prepared me for something”). Considering a career in academe, and fascinated by theories of human persuasion, he obtained a master’s at NYU. His focus: Propaganda Studies. At Fordham Law, he already knew his future: “I had no other aspiration other than to be a phenomenal matrimonial lawyer” because it demanded all that he excelled at.

Even before finishing law school, hired by a well-known Rockland County trial attorney, Sexton spent three years working in divorce litigation. By 2001, still in his late 20s, he launched a solo practice that grew quickly, to the surprise of rivals many years his senior. Part of Sexton’s secret: He fostered a mean-what-you-say, say-what-you-mean culture that contrasted with the bluffs and posturing common among some lawyers. “If I say we’re going to court, we’re going to court. Don’t fill up my fax machine with all your intentions.” It was a swagger that’s already resulted in several high-profile victories, establishing Sexton early as a formidable courtroom advocate. With a team of four seasoned associates today, Sexton’s firm handles Rockland County’s diverse range of divorce cases. Frequently litigating head-to-head against attorneys who graduated from law school well before he was born, Sexton has earned the respect of his colleagues, with several cases on which he was trial counsel featured in the New York Law Journal. In 2009 Sexton gained local attention by obtaining, for a client, what is believed to be the largest temporary counsel fee award in the history of Rockland County matrimonial practice. In 2015 his professional accomplishments were again the subject of acclaim when he was profiled in New York Magazine as one of New York’s top family law attorneys. Also in 2015, Sexton became a featured Columnist for the Huffington Post due to his work on the firm’s popular divorce related blog (www.nycdivorceblog.com). Described by some as a “compassionate advocate” and others as a “courtroom gunslinger” Sexton’s reputation as a skilled matrimonial litigator has spread quickly over the past decade. Constantly seeking to incorporate new technologies and perspectives into his firm’s practice, Sexton was Certified as a Divorce Mediator in 2002 and in 2009 traveled to Atlanta to become Rockland County’s first matrimonial attorney with national certification as a Parent Coordinator.

Not one to fear conflicts in or out of a Courtroom, Sexton is an active martial artist and began studying Okinawan Goju Ryu Karate at the age of nine. In the decades that followed he diversified his knowledge of the fighting arts studying Judo, Aikido and Muay Thai kickboxing in the United States and abroad. He presently focuses the majority of his training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (Team Marcelo Garcia) and frequently competes in amateur mixed martial arts (MMA) fighting and tournaments.