Ayelet Ben-Gur Cohen Law Offices and Mediaton

Ayelet Ben Gur-Cohen Law Office & Mediation is a leading boutique firm in family and inheritance laws. The office is an expert in a plethora of issues concerning family laws, including drafting financial agreements, shared parenthood, divorce agreement, mediation and negotiation, representation and case management in courts of family affairs, rabbinical tribunals and in appeals, including matters involving wills and inheritance. The office was founded in 2000 by Ayelet Ben Gur-Cohen, Adv., a senior attorney with over 22 years of experience in family and inheritance laws.
Attorney Ben Gur Cohen has a master’s degree (LL.M.) from Bar Ilan University and a master’s degree in business administration and economics (MBA), certified Mediator and Notary.
The firm’s source of strength and uniqueness is in the synergy between the high service awareness typical of the office and the in-depth professional knowledge and extensive experience managing complex cases, including cases with financial aspects. The office’s proficient legal team renders top-tier legal services in the fields of personal status, family and inheritance laws, and mediation, while maintaining credible, discrete and professional service that is customized the personal needs of the office clients. The office, which ensures to get frequently updated on new issues related to its practice in order to continue offer the most professional legal services in the field to its clients, has been offering an enduring power of attorney editing services, meant to replace the guardianship management process.

The Office’s Fields of Expertise

The office is an expert in all matters related to family laws and wills. Among others, the office renders first-rate legal services, regarding drafting financial agreements, shared living and/or parenthood agreements, and drafting, mediating and negotiating divorce agreements.
The office represents its clients before the various family courts nationwide, rabbinical tribunal, the inheritance registrar and also in appeal proceedings before higher legal instances, e.g., district courts, Supreme/HCJ Court and the Great Rabbinical Court. The office offers extensive legal services, including management of divorce cases in all aspects: shared parental responsibility and visitations timeshare, child and/or spousal and/or estate support, resource balancing and property distribution between spouses, handling parental alienation, enforcing visitation arrangements, adoption and surrogacy proceedings, common-law marriage and marriage approval (civil marriage). Furthermore, the office specializes in drafting wills, wills objections, probate orders and inheritance orders, estate management, drafting estate-related agreements, representing in estate conflictes and enduring power of attorney. The office even delves into proceeding related to the immigration of children abroad and proceedings pursuant to the 1991 Hague Convention (Return of Abducted Children). Moreover, the office handles domestic violence, including matters of protection orders and orders to prevent threatening abuse. Also, our office also deals with false complaints which have become a commonplace issue.

Credibility, Professionalism and Discretion

The Office offers professional, credible and discrete service, resulting from its belief in full transparency with its clients and of taking the suitable legal strategy in each case, targeting to achieve the best resultevery client. The office is reputable owing to its integrity and reliability by giving personal attention to all of its clients while also managing the crisis meticulously and with sensitivity. The office also emphasizes thoroughness when it comes to case management, including great legal skills and mastery of the law.

The Founder, Ayelet Ben-Gur Cohen, Adv.

The office’s founder, Ayelet Ben-Gur Cohen, is known as a leading family and inheritance law attorney for the past 22 years and is reputable for the professional, discrete and reliable service that she provides her clients, including her personal assistance throughout the process. Over the years, Ayelet accumulated vast experience with highly complex cases involving family laws and has developed a unique legal strategy for conflict and crisis management.
Ayelet began her legal journey as an intern for Judge Shaul Shochat, one of Israel’s most senior judges. She was admitted to the Israeli bar in May 2000 and was certified as a family law mediator in 2003. Since then, she has managed countless mediation proceedings in complicated family conflicts that successfully resolved conflicts in the best and most professional way possible. Moreover, Ayelet has extensive experience in representing before legal instances, including appeals and proceedings before higher instances including the Great Rabbinical Court, the district courts, the Supreme Court and the High Court of Justice (HCJ). Ayelet has been a lecturer of family laws for many years in leading academic institutions in Israel, including the Jerusalem University, Technion and Bar-Ilan University, as part of the lecturing staff studies for proficiency done by Etz Hadaat Company, and was a partner to the “Divorcing in Cooperation” group which offers a one-stop-shop of comprehensive services needed for the full divorce proceeding, including attorneys, psychologists, actuaries and accountants.

Selected Cases and Caselaw

Revoking child support - An unusual case in which a judgement was rendered that cancelled child support due to severe incitement and parental alienation, which resulted in disconnection between the client and his children. The office proved that it is unjust to continue paying child support for as long as the client is prevented from having contact with his children, and the court sided with the office’s request.
And on the other side:
Rejecting a claim to cancel child support due to parental alienation - The children refused to be in contact with their father, who filed a claim to revoke child support due to parental alienation. The office proved that the parental alienation was established due to the father’s behavior and not due to incitement by the mother, and therefore his claim is unjust. later on, the father petitioned in order to impose fines on the mother, and sending the family for further emotional therapy, after years of such failed treatments due to the father’s behavior. The court accepted the firm’s claims and ruled that no fines shall be imposed, and the father will seek mandatory individual treatment.
Defamation suits - A client filed a defamation suit and won, after it was proved that following the break-up, the mother defamed his name. The court’s tendency is ruling that words spoken in the course of legal proceedings shall not be easily considered defamation, which is why this is an office achievement.
Cancelling a premarital agreement - A client wished to filed for divorce and, since she signed a draconian prenuptial agreement, she was left with nothing. Following prolonged proceedings, the agreement was cancelled, and a divorce agreement was signed instead, granting her sizeable monetary compensation that is suitable with the standard of living that both parties and their daughter had.
Will execution order & opposition to the will - Who is the “stake-holder” - In a complex estate case, the firm represented young heirs who had lost their father, against their uncle. The uncle petitioned for the execution of a will according to which he will become the estate executor and ask for the estate to be divided within many years ahead. Later on, the uncle died, and another uncle asked to continue the proceedings in his place. Our firm claimed that the surviving uncle had no status in the will and that the role of estate manager was not inherited. The court accepted the claims and ruled that the estate would be distributed to the heirs earlier than those stipulated in the will.