But isn't that the very point of it, though? Because we think about marriage as this beautiful, romantic institution, and at the end of the day, it is a contract, and with that contract, there are other matters that need to be thought about.

I feel like that's the law, and it, when you get married, you, uh, you sign a lot of contracts.

The, the, the venue that you go to, the flowers, the cake, the band, right? Everybody's got such a problem with the biggest contract of all, but what they don't realize is you've entered into a contract, whether you have a prenup or not, when you walk down the aisle.

Your money is gonna be split.

You write a screenplay during your marriage, that's half his.

You paint a painting during the marriage, that's half hers.

And if one of you makes more money than the other one, you're going to be paying the other person money to equalize the lifestyle if you split up.

So it, for a woman who's got less money than her partner, how should she think about a prenup so that it protects her?

[laughs]

...

I never saw your prenup.

I had nothing to do with it.

That was my partner, Melanie, so I don't even know what the terms are.

But, uh, with a prenup, it's not just, "Here's what will happen if we get divorced." It also has terms for what happened during the marriage, who gets what, what gets paid, how we keep our assets, et cetera.

And I think it's really important.

For a woman that's listening to this that's thinking about building her personal brand, what would you chalk it up to, like, be able to stand here or sit here now as Laura Wasser and have that invisible reputation that's followed you, or precedes you?

[laughs]

...

I never saw your prenup.

I had nothing to do with it.

That was my partner, Melanie, so I don't even know what the terms are.

But, uh, with a prenup, it's not just here's what will happen if we get divorced.

It also has terms for what happened during the marriage, who gets what, what gets paid, how we keep our assets, et cetera.

For a woman that's listening to this that's thinking about building her personal brand- What would you chalk it up to like be able to stand here or sit here now as Laura Wasser and have that invisible reputation that's followed you or precedes you?

You're spreading your wings.

Well, I wouldn't go so far.

I'm not quitting my day job, put it that way, guys.

I mean, this was kind of a one-off.

I loved it.

They were so awesome to me at Reformation and the hair and the makeup and the glam.

I mean, at 57, you don't get the opportunity to do that too often when you're a family law attorney.

But they clearly convinced you that this is going to be something you're going to enjoy doing.

What do you say to people who think of it as divorce planning?

I say it's marriage planning.

There's a number of conversations that couples should be having before they get married, and it s- still, 32 years into my practice, is baffling to me that people don't have to get any kind of...

I mean, you get a marriage license, but that's just a formality.

And in some religions, you will speak with a priest or a rabbi for a certain number of sessions before they'll officiate your wedding.

But really, you don't have to do much if you wanna marry somebody.

You don't even have to have a lawyer to divorce somebody.

Wow.

I don't know anything about this, so in a prenup, what is one of the craziest clauses that you could recall having to include?

Well, it's interesting.

I haven't had to include them.

I have had people ask for things that I have said, "We're not including that because it's not enforceable." Now, understand, people can agree to whatever they want.

They can agree that if wife doesn't lose the baby weight after 12 months post having a child, then, you know, this happens.

They can agree that if somebody doesn't maintain their sobriety, or in fact does maintain their sobriety for every year they maintain it, they get an extra chunk of money.

The question is whether if questioned or contested, that agreement will be enforceable.

Right.

And yeah, I just feel like I want people to get to know a different side of you.

Well, that's why I came.

I mean, I feel like, look, you can't be a divorce attorney without having something attributed to you, and a lot of people are like, "Wow, you're pit bull, shark." I don't think that's how I am.

I think it's more of a problem-solving gene that I have, that my dad has as well.

And so we wanna try to help people.

By the time they come to me, they're already getting divorced.

I'm not, like, a divorce monger.

Yeah.