About Diane


Diane Fener attended Boston University and Brandeis University for undergraduate and graduate school, and earned a bachelor of arts degree and teaching certification before attending Georgetown University Law Center.  There, she was elected by her law school classmates to serve as president of the student bar association, and she was selected by the law school faculty to deliver a speech at commencement ceremonies.

After graduation from law school in 1979, she was appointed by the courts in the District of Columbia to represent children and adults who could not afford to retain private counsel. 


New York City Law Offices of Diane Fener
222 East Thirty-Fourth Street, Suite 710
          New York, New York 10016
                      Tel: (917) 566-9525
                  Email: diane@dianefener.com

She later joined The International Law Firm of Fulbright & Jaworski at its office in Los Angeles, California.


In 1995, she returned to the east coast to undertake an Innovative Demonstration Project for the United States Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, serving for three years as a Juvenile Detention Specialist for the Virginia Public Defender Commission.

At the conclusion of that project, she was retained by the City of Virginia Beach, under another federal grant, to conduct an independent assessment of the local juvenile justice system and to make formal recommendations for improvements.

Ms. Fener's work in juvenile and family law has been commended by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, the funding agency for these projects, and by the Virginia Beach Juvenile Court, where Ms. Fener advocated for the rights of children and families. She also served on the Virginia Beach Community Criminal Justice Board and on the board of directors of the Friends of the Virginia Beach Juvenile Court. She served for two years on the board of directors of the Hampton Roads Youth Center and helped to create that alternative school. She gave CLE-accredited lectures at state conventions for the Virginia Public Defender Commission and Department of Criminal Justice Services.
She served on the Advisory Board of the American Bar Association's National Juvenile Defender Center located in Washington, D.C. Most recently, she worked at The Law Firm of Raoul Felder And Partners in New York City.

Ms. Fener has been interviewed on the television program DATELINE NBC and quoted in the New York Times as an expert in juvenile law. Her extensive civil and criminal litigation experience includes numerous jury trials before state and federal courts. Her work was cited in a cover story by The Journal of the American Bar Association.




Ms. Fener is admitted to practice in New York, California, the District of Columbia, and Virginia.
She is currently accepting new cases in the greater New York City area.  If you need legal advice regarding a divorce, child custody, child support, adoption, juvenile law or mental health issue, contact her by email or phone to schedule a free consultation.
New York City Family Law Attorney Diane Fener