Jacob M. Atwood

EAST SANDWICH — When Jacob M. Atwood first joined the bar, colleagues counseled him to learn to play golf. The links, they said, would help him build a flourishing practice. Heeding their advice, he bought a used set of clubs, found three partners who promised patient instruction and headed to a public course in Melrose. And on the third tee of his very first game, he hit a hole in one. Unfortunately for him, but to the enduring benefit of thousands of clients for the next 52 years, the ball had sliced badly to the right and landed in the wrong hole on an adjacent green. He decided then and there that the best way to become a successful lawyer was to become a great lawyer. That afternoon, he retired the golf clubs forever.

Mr. Atwood, a founding partner of the Boston law firm of Atwood & Cherny, P.C., passed away at his home in East Sandwich on June 4, 2008. He was 74 years old.

Mr. Atwood practiced law for more than 50 years. He developed a national reputation in the practice of family law and trial of high profile divorce cases and custody disputes. During his more than 50 years of practice, he helped formulate precedent-setting cases that Massachusetts lawyers rely upon in nearly every aspect of family law, including child custody, pre-marital agreements, inherited wealth, Fifth Amendment privilege in divorce matters as well as other significant cases. Mr. Atwood often appeared on "Larry King Live" and provided frequent television, radio and newspaper interviews in connection with his high-profile cases. He also authored many learned treatises and articles involving family law that are still relied on today by family law attorneys.

Mr. Atwood was a 1956 graduate of Boston University School of Law, where he served as a senior editor of the Law Review. He also received an honorary degree from New England School of Law, where he also served on the Board of Trustees. He was a founder of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and a fellow of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. He served as president of the Massachusetts chapter for two years. He was also a longtime member and former officer of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and the Massachusetts Trial Lawyers Association. He was consistently certified in The Best Lawyers in America.

While Mr. Atwood enjoyed a most distinguished legal career, he maintained an active interest outside the law restoring and building representations of authentic 18th-century homes and raised Scottish highland cattle on his Cape Cod farm. He has been featured in Yankee Magazine and other national publications. He was also a devoted member of The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, as well as The Order of the Founders and Patriots of America.

Mr. Atwood was quoted as saying, "Divorce is the single most traumatic event anyone will go through in their life, even more so than death because that person is gone. Through the years in representing literally thousands of divorcing women and men, I have tried to give them some hope that eventually life will get better again. As lawyers involved in this emotional area of the law, our duty is to not only get our clients a good result, but to protect them from themselves in doing so."

He leaves two sons, Jonathan of Boxford, and Bradford and wife, Lorraine, of Sharon, Vt.; a daughter, Heather; and husband David Rabin, M.D., of Rockport. He is also survived by seven grandchildren, Julia of Boxford, Caleb, Abra, Caroline and Bruce of Vermont, and Isabelle and Georgia of Rockport.

A gathering to celebrate his life will be held in the gardens and orchards he planted and nurtured in East Sandwich, on June 22, at 1 p.m.

Donations may be made in his memory to the Home for Little Wanderers, 271 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA, 02115.