There is an unknown couple in New Jersey that never made headlines until this week when reporters got hold of their divorce case.
According to press accounts of the divorce trial between Two Sigma co-founder John Overdeck and his wife Laura Overdeck, his offer to pay her $600 Million was rejected. She is instead pursuing 35% of his stake in the business – reported at about $6 Billion.
Two Sigma is a New York City-based hedge fund that uses a variety of technological methods, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and distributed computing for its trading strategies.
Set aside for a moment, whether Laura is entitled to what she seeks. She may well be. New Jersey, like Ontario, does not distribute marital property according to what a spouse needs. It distributes according to legal entitlement.
In this case, the legal question and the moral question are different questions, and only one of them is being litigated.
No person can spend $600 Million in a lifetime – not by buying mansions, sports cars, jets, designer clothing or first class global travel. When does money stop functioning as a resource and starts functioning as a scoreboard? It becomes the only unit of measurement available for matters that have no unit of measurement: whose sacrificed more, whose contribution was more important, who built what, who was unappreciated, who was betrayed, who was the more attentive parent, who gets to be blamed for their divorce.
Courts don’t count points. Then award dollars. The dollars are based on an equation. So the spouses and their cadre of lawyers and forensic experts partake in an extremely expensive duel.
This couple has now spent 4 years fighting since separation. The antics played out in court are not novel: John’s adultery and mistress, Laura’s allegations of domestic violence and police involvement, admissibility of bodycam footage, breaches of discovery orders, allegations that Laura accessed John’s computer and photographed emails discussing legal strategy, and much more juicy private details.
The questions that the judge will not ask:
John and Laura, how will this money change your life? How will you spend it? What does it matter? What is the number that ends this absurdity? Do you have any plans to use your money to improve society?
The Overdeck trial will produce a judgment, and the judgment will allocate an enormous sum with perfect legal correctness. It will not resolve the one thing that brought them there – upset.
Our job – as counsel, as mediators, as arbitrators, as coaches – is not to tell people what they should accept. It is to make sure that somebody, at some point in the process, asks them what they are really fighting for, how this is affecting their lives and the lives of their children and why the fight (at that price point) is not worth it.
In too many files, nobody ever does.
Steve Benmor, B.Sc., LL.B., LL.M. (Family Law), C.S., Cert.F.Med., C.Arb., FDRP PC, Acc.D.C., is a full-time Divorce Mediator/Arbitrator and principal lawyer of Benmor Family Law Group, a boutique matrimonial law firm in downtown Toronto. He is a Certified Specialist in Family Law, a Certified Specialist in Parenting Coordination and was admitted as a Fellow to the prestigious International Academy of Family Lawyers. Steve is regularly retained as a Divorce Mediator/Arbitrator and Parenting Coordinator. Steve uses his 30 years of in-depth knowledge of family law, court-room experience and expert problem-solving skills in Divorce Mediation/Arbitration to help spouses reach fair, fast and cooperative divorce settlements without the financial losses, emotional costs and lengthy delays from divorce court.
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