our attorneys
Steven M. Silpe
“I structure creative settlements. I try cases aggressively, when necessary. In either case, I like to win.”
For more than four decades, Steven M. Silpe has built his reputation as one of New York’s foremost matrimonial attorneys — a lawyer equally at home negotiating a complex settlement and standing before a judge at trial. His practice has been devoted to matrimonial and family law since his admission to the bar in 1981, giving him a depth of experience that few attorneys in this field can match.
Steve has been a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (since 1994) and the International Academy of Family Lawyers — distinctions reserved for the top family law practitioners in the nation. He has been recognized as a New York Magazine Super Lawyer every year since 2007 and is consistently listed among the Best Lawyers in the New York Metropolitan Area. Judges and colleagues alike have long regarded him as among the elite of New York matrimonial practitioners.
His courtroom experience spans the full range of matrimonial litigation: divorce, contested child custody and support, equitable distribution of complex marital estates, and pre- and post-marital agreements. His training as a mediator and arbitrator also makes him a trusted neutral chosen by other attorneys to help resolve disputes in their own cases. He has served on the Interdisciplinary Forum on Mental Health and Family Law and has lectured extensively on matrimonial and family law issues.
What distinguishes Steve’s representation is his discipline and strategic clarity. From the first meeting, he works with each client to define realistic goals and build a precise plan to reach them. “There is a lot about a divorce you can’t control,” he notes, “so it’s critical to properly manage everything you can control.” That structured, intentional approach — combined with a refusal to yield an inch when the case demands it — is why his clients come almost exclusively through referrals from former clients, and why, notably, many are referred by the former spouses of those clients, or by opposing counsel.
In co-founding Garr Silpe, P.C. with his longtime colleague Ira Garr, Steve brings that full breadth of experience to a firm built around one purpose: achieving the best possible resolution for each individual client, whatever that takes.
Steve lives in Westchester, New York with his family. Outside the office, he is an avid golfer, cyclist, and snowboarder.