How Rising Star Ankit Kapoor ’18 Went from NYPD to Partner in a Matrimonial Law Firm

Brooklyn Law School’s Rising Star of 2026 Ankit Kapoor ’18 broke into the field of matrimonial law as if he already owned it. He walked into a Manhattan boutique law firm, was offered an associate position, and two successful years later achieved his goal of “getting his name on the door” as a partner at Cohen Stine Kapoor. 

Yet Kapoor’s career as a matrimonial lawyer was far from pre-ordained. After college, he spent seven years as an NYPD police officer, serving Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant and East New York precincts.  

“I wanted more, and I thought I could do more with my life,” Kapoor said. “So, I went from law enforcement, enforcing the law, to interpreting the law as an attorney, from cop to counselor.”  

From Cop to Counselor 

After Law School, Kapoor worked for the City of New York as assistant corporation counsel for a year but decided to shift to matrimonial law as a practical, recession-proof practice where his people skills would shine.

Through a connection with a judge, Kapoor scheduled a meeting with Harriet Newman-Cohen ’74, who had no open position but agreed to provide advice. Not long into the meeting, Newman Cohen, called in her daughter and law partner, Martha “Marti” Cohen Stine, for what turned into an extensive interview with the recent grad. “He was very charismatic, very smart, and very eager. And at the end of the conversation, I said to him, ‘So, Ankit. What's your goal?’ He said, ‘My goal is to have my name on the door.’ I looked at Marty, and she looked at me, and the two of us said in unison, ‘You’re hired.’” That was 2019, and when the mother-and-daughter team formed a new firm, Cohen Stine Kapoor. After the pandemic in 2020, Kapoor joined as partner. 

What Kapoor did not anticipate at first was how much his police background, where “every day, every call was different” would inform his matrimonial law career.  

“Most of my cases are high conflict. People call in a time of distress, and my training and experience as a police officer has helped me handle that in a more calm and empathetic manner,” Kapoor said. When cases go to court, his ability to focus and take control of tricky situations kicks in. 

“I love trying cases because it allows me to get the best outcome for my client. When I have a witness on the stand, whether it’s for direct questioning or cross-examination, nothing else in the world matters but me and that witness.” The “command voice” that Kapoor learned to use as a police officer elevates his courtroom elocution, he says, “whether it's arguing a motion, cross-examining a witness, or during a closing argument.” 

Outside the courtroom, the former officer’s friendly and authoritative social media presence has prompted strangers to greet him in restaurants and summoned clients to his door. On his Instagram reels [handle: @newyorkdivorcelawyer], his posts are helpful and matter-of-fact. “Your conversations with ChatGPT and other AI bots are Not Privileged!” he warns in one. “Does cheating affect divorce?” “Maybe,” he explains in another. 

The Journey to Brooklyn Law School 

Before enrolling at Brooklyn Law School, Kapoor used every available moment to study for the LSAT, even doing a practice exam while guarding a prisoner recovering at a hospital. After choosing Brooklyn Law School for its focus on practical experience, he enrolled in the Criminal Defense & Advocacy Clinic, completed a Kings County District Attorney’s Office externship, and served as a summer associate at a midsize Manhattan law firm.  

“I didn't want to be stuck inside a classroom for the next three to four years,” Kapoor said. “I wanted to be in clinics. I wanted to be in the courtroom. I wanted to do externships and internships.”  

After class, Kapoor’s world was quite different from most of his peers. He took the train or drove to Bedford-Stuyvesant to work the midnight shift of a job where there was no such thing as a “routine day” and where 99 percent of the 911 calls he responded to were from people in distress. Each night, the spinning wheel of misfortune would land on a different emergency: armed robberies, homicides, people with weapons, domestic disputes, missing children, car accidents, and more. “And then I would go home, sleep during the day, and wake up at a time where I had time to read before the next class. So that's how my Mondays to Thursdays went as a police officer in the NYPD, at least for the first few years of law school,” he recalled. 

One of Kapoor’s professors who remembers him as a standout is Hon. Timothy Driscoll, a judge in the State Supreme Court’s Commercial Division in Nassau County and an adjunct at the Law School for 28 years.  

“Ankit was my student in first year fundamentals of legal drafting, which is what we call the legal writing class then,” Driscoll said. “From the very beginning, he represented the best of what the evening division has to offer at Brooklyn Law School, which are students who come from all walks of life, who are looking to better themselves, not just in their own professions, but also to make the world a little bit better.”  

Kapoor expressed gratitude to his mentors, partners, and Brooklyn Law School for his career success and the Rising Star title.  

“My experience at Brooklyn Law School was transformative. It really turned a boy into a man, and it helped me see the world in a different way,” he said. “It gave me something that I’ll be able to use for the rest of my life.”