Since his admission to the Massachusetts Bar over thirty years ago in 1991, ROBERT J. RIVERS, JR.’s practice has been concentrated in all areas of Family Law litigation, both at the trial court and appellate levels. Mr. Rivers is a Fellow (and Past President) of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML), a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL) and a Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers (IAFL). He has been awarded the “AV” rating by Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, which is granted to a select group of attorneys and indicates the highest possible peer rating within a particular practice area. He has also been recognized each year since 2009 as one of the Top 100 Massachusetts “Super Lawyers” in all practice areas by Boston Magazine, Law & Politics. Mr. Rivers has also been recognized by his peers for inclusion in Naifeh and Smith’s Best Lawyers in the area of Family Law consistently since 2008, having been recognized as Boston “Lawyer of the Year” in 2015 and again in 2019.
Mr. Rivers has been a frequent lecturer on Family Law issues for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) and others, involving such matters as alimony, child support, custody, property division and complex jurisdictional issues. Mr. Rivers has also published numerous articles on Family Law issues, including a comprehensive analysis of child support orders in paternity cases that was published in the November, 1999 edition of Massachusetts Family Law Journal as well as a thorough review of child support orders in high income cases that appeared in the March, 2011 edition of Massachusetts Lawyers Journal. In addition, Mr. Rivers has lectured and written extensively on family law jurisdictional practice and procedure, including articles on such cutting-edge issues as interstate child support enforcement and modification, among them “Jurisdiction to Modify Foreign Child Support Orders under the Full Faith and Credit for Child Support Orders Act,” published in FairShare – The Matrimonial Law Monthly (Vol. 12, No. 2) (February 1997); “Traps for the Unwary in Modification Proceedings involving the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act,” published in Section Review (Mass. Bar Assn.) (Summer 2000); “The ‘Double-Dipping’ Concept in Business Valuation for Divorce Purposes,” published in Section Review (Mass. Bar Assn.) (Spring 2006); and “Child Support Orders in High Income Cases – Searching for Guidelines,” published in Massachusetts Lawyers Journal (March 2011).
Mr. Rivers is a member of the Family Law Section of the Massachusetts and American Bar Associations. He also served on the Boston Bar Association’s Family Law Section Steering Committee and has been a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Family Law Section Council where he served as Family Law Editor of Section Review, a legal periodical. He also served on the Family Law Curriculum Advisory Committee of Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE). Mr. Rivers was also appointed to the “Child Support Guidelines Task Force” by the Chief Justice of the Probate and Family Court. In connection therewith, Mr. Rivers participated in the promulgation of the new Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines (effective January 1, 2009).
Mr. Rivers is a cum laude graduate of both Boston College (1988) and Suffolk University Law School (1991), where he served as Technical Editor of the Suffolk Transnational Law Journal.
For more information see www.aaml.org.
