Diahn W. McGrath

Diahn W. McGrath is the founding partner of McGrath Law Offices.  Over twenty years in practice, her professional focus has been on all forms of family and estate law, including matrimonial proceedings, probate and administration, trust and estate accountings.She specializes in all areas of family law including child custody matters, guardianships, probate and trust law, estate and trust administration and related tax matters.  Ms. McGrath practices in the Supreme and Surrogate’s Courts of New York, Kings, Queens, Richmond, Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester Counties.  In her vast experience, she has represented clients in adoptions and divorces, pre- and post-nuptials, guardianships, will contests and contested probate proceedings, accounting proceedings, discovery proceedings, and turnover proceedings.  Many of these contested matters have gone to trial.

Since establishing a solo practice in 1990, she was rated in 1998, the first year she was eligible for rating by Martindale-Hubbell, A-V, the highest rating in both categories, and was named in 2011 by Avenue Magazine together with Martindale-Hubbell, as a Legal Elite of Trusts and Estates Law.

Ms. McGrath has an extensive professional network.  She has received numerous appointments as guardian-ad-litem in the Surrogate’s Court and Supreme Court, including Article 81 guardianships, contested accountings and will construction proceedings.  She has had several cases in the U.S. Tax Court involving alleged tax deficiencies. Ms. McGrath has successfully appealed on behalf of appellants and appellees.  She has also appeared on television as a Commentator for the Anna Nicole Smith proceeding on Court TV and has served as an expert witness in a contested probate proceeding.

Professional Organizations

• Two-term Member, Trusts, Estates and Surrogate Courts Committee of the Bar Association of the City of New York, Chairman of the subcommittee on Mediation, and a member of the Ethics Committee.
• Member, Sections on Matrimonial Law and Trusts & Estates, New York State Bar Association
• Member, American Bar Association

Education

• Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, J.D
• University of Miami, BA Psychology with Honors

Bar Admissions

• New York
• Washington, D.C.

Court Admissions

• U.S. District Court, Southern District
• U.S. District Court, Eastern District
• U.S. Tax Court

Appearances

• Court T.V., commentator on several televised cases including a child who divorced parents, a mother who sequestered her children from their father, Anna Nicole Smith’s estate dispute.