Passion and Power is about the life and career of Harriet Newman Cohen, one of the nation’s most celebrated divorce attorneys, as she navigated the male-dominated legal world from the 1970s to today.
This sweeping narrative details Harriet’s journey through three worlds: raising a family at a time when men held all the power, graduating from law school on the cusp of the “divorce revolution,” and re-fighting old battles over women’s rights in today’s time of reaction of retrenchment. The frankness with which Harriet relates her own experience is matched by equally candid insights into how a legal system that often rewards bad behavior and irrational decision-making shapes the culture at large and impacts those trying to navigate their way towards a better life. Writing with candor and humor, Harriet describes her encounters with celebrities, mentors, notable judges, allies, and adversaries. She examines many cases but describes three in almost novelistic detail, all drawn from her own practice—including her pivotal role in the “Case of a Lifetime,” the focus of the three-part documentary HBO series Nuclear Family (2021). Harriet is equally honest about the business side of the law—the financial cost and psychological burden these proceedings impose on families and the sometimes-heartbreaking collateral damage. Passion and Power illuminates both a singular life and the legal and social revolution that changed, in fundamental ways, the sexual, financial, and cultural norms governing the most intimate relations between men and women.