Joy S. Rosenthal, Esq. is a compassionate mediator, a skilled negotiator and an intelligent litigator with extensive background in the private and public sectors.
Joy founded Rosenthal Law & Mediation in 2006. The firm’s practice centers on family and estates law, as well as family-based mediation. In addition to her private practice, she mediates custody and visitation disputes for the New York City Family Courts and serves as a Guardian Ad Litem, protecting the rights of youth and the disabled in New York City Surrogates Courts. She also serves as President of the Board of Directors of the Family and Divorce Mediation Council.
Joy served as a Staff Attorney at the Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Division for nearly 10 years, where she represented hundreds of children and teenagers in foster care, child welfare, custody, adoption, PINS (Person in Need of Supervision) and delinquency cases in the Bronx and in Brooklyn. Joy was honored to be selected for a one year fellowship at New York University School of Law’s Family Defense Clinic, teaching law students to represent parents in child welfare proceedings.
While at Legal Aid, Joy focused on representing teens who were freed for adoption, often preparing for discharge on their own. To help stop the cycle of foster care, she developed and led workshops for teen mothers and fathers about neglect. She was part of a group that wrote a policy report about the outcomes for youth in New York City group homes. The report, Time Running Out: Teens In Foster Care, documented the terrible outcomes of youth in group homes. Shortly afterward, the City virtually discontinued their use. Joy also led peer workshops about diversity and cultural consciousness for Legal Aid Society staff and management. She has given presentations on ethical issues facing the law guardian and currently leads workshops about the caregiving challenges facing those in the “Sandwich Generation.”
Before going to law school, Joy served as an assistant and a speech writer for the president of New York University, and was a Retirement Plans Analyst (Series 7, 63) for PaineWebber.
Joy graduated from the City University of New York School of Law in 1996, and received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in Women’s Studies. She also studied at Smith College, Harvard University Divinity School (world religion), New York University’s School of Social Work, and studied psychology at NYU’s Graduate School of Arts and Science.
Joy studied basic and intensive family-based mediation at Community Mediation Services and at the Center for Mediation in Law. She studied Elder Mediation at Elder Decisions/Agreement Resources. She has also trained in mediation and collaborative process with the New York State Office of Court Administration.
Joy is a member of the following professional organizations:
- Family and Divorce Mediation Council of Greater New York
- New York State Dispute Resolution Association
- Association for Conflict Resolution
- International Academy of Collaborative Professionals
- New York State Council on Divorce Mediation
- New York County Lawyers Association
Joy is a compassionate listener who believes in treating all clients fairly, with respect and dignity.