About The Author

I founded Cordell & Cordell in 1990 after a brief stint with a major law firm. Originally a general practice firm focusing its attention on domestic relations matters, Cordell & Cordell has evolved into a firm practicing exclusively domestic relations law, with an overwhelming emphasis on fathers' rights. Men represent approximately 90% of our clientele. We serve the greater St. Louis metropolitan area, practicing in both Missouri and Illinois, as well as Kansas City. We presently employ seven lawyers and to date have served thousands of men. To my knowledge, Cordell & Cordell is the largest firm of its kind in America. We unapologetically market and advertise ourselves as a firm devoted to men's interests.

I have been asked to comment as an authority on men's issues in legal and other periodicals and have been interviewed on both radio and television with respect to various matters relating to men and divorce.

Men come to Cordell & Cordell because they want to feel that their interests and the interests of their children are aggressively championed. Too often lawyers, and even judges, have resigned themselves to stereotypes and a perpetuation of the status quo. I am not suggesting this mentality is malicious or even conscious, but it is prevalent. Exacerbating things further is the feminist movement and its shrill insistence on women's interests to the utter exclusion of the underlying merits of a given case.

The result is that the judicial system (ie, lawyers, judges, social workers, and the administration) is prone to assume without proof that moms should be the primary custodial parents, that men accused of abuse are guilty of abuse, that men alleging abuse are lying or overreacting, that women are not as capable of generating income as men, and that a man is less deserving of assets earned by a woman than when the reverse circumstance exists.

Naturally, no law firm can completely rectify these deep-seated and multifarious injustices, and we do not promise our clients transcendent justice. All we can promise our clients is their best chance. At Cordell & Cordell, we have cultivated a reputation for challenging fallacious assumptions, for calling the court's attention to inequalities, and for advancing, without equivocation, bold arguments from which other attorneys might shrink. Sometimes it is necessary to insist on a hearing on the record when the result proposed by the court in chambers is contrary to the law as properly construed. Although such positions occasionally cause conflict, they nonetheless engender respect and encourage more reasonable positions from the court, as well as from the other side.

The task of representing men is a challenging one requiring skill and experience. In a system seemingly predisposed against them, men can only hope to succeed by using all the help available to them, both legally and strategically. Cordell & Cordell has built its practice on helping men do just that.

Cordell & Cordell represents fathers in
St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri;
Fairview Heights, Illinois;
Overland Park, Kansas and Atlanta Georgia

This online custody guide is adapted with permission from "Civil War: A Dad's Guide to Custody" (266 pages, softcover) - available in our online store.