Francesca O'Cathain | Hackensack Divorce Lawyer

Francesca O’Cathain is the managing partner of the divorce, matrimonial, and family law practice at the O’Cathain Law Group.

Francesca’s clients include people from all walks of life and socioeconomic backgrounds. She is one of the few family lawyers in New Jersey who takes high-end income/asset cases all the way to trial and is known in Bergen County for handling divorces of cops and teachers, as she is familiar with the unique circumstances of their finances, especially their pensions and retirement benefits.

Along with high-end divorce cases, she handles contentious custody cases and has carved out a niche in handling divorces involving kids with special needs. She frequently lectures to other lawyers and judges in New Jersey and nationwide about divorces in which one or more children from the marriage have a special need.

Francesca is board-certified by the New Jersey Supreme Court as a family lawyer. (Approximately 3% of New Jersey lawyers are board certified.) She is one of only approximately 45 New Jersey family lawyers who is admitted as a member of the National American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and currently serves as President of its New Jersey Chapter. She has lectured for the American Bar Association on family law and is a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association, for whom she also frequently lectures.

She is recognized by Lawdragon, as one of the 2026 500 leading Family Lawyers, and has been selected as a Super Lawyer for Family Law in New Jersey by Super Lawyers.

She is Of Counsel to the prominent New York law firm of Berkman, Bottger, Newman & Schein.

Francesca was featured in Bergen Magazine’s Women In Law profile in their June 2025 edition. This edition’s feature celebrated the leadership, accomplishments, and influence of outstanding female attorneys and paralegals across Bergen County.

Francesca grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey, in a family of lawyers, where she was one of five children. In the fall of 1997, Francesca flew to Los Angeles, California, where she began her undergraduate degree at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California. Though tempted by the climate to stay, she returned to the northeast and graduated with her Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Connecticut in 2004. That fall, she followed in her mother’s footsteps and started practicing family law in New Jersey.

Firmly rooted in Bergen County, Francesca now lives in Hillsdale, New Jersey, with her husband and three children. She is always happy to share that her three children came to her through either adoption or infertility treatment. And her office is generously decorated with photos of them— mostly from their pre-teen years! The challenges of building her own family and being a child of a second marriage have given her the belief that coming through difficult times can lead to wonderful new beginnings.

She is available for an in-person or virtual consultation to discuss the best divorce options for you and your family.