Lauren M. Graf is an Associate Attorney with the Law Office of Rachel S. Cotrino, LLC, where she practices New Jersey family law. She represents clients in Mercer, Ocean, Monmouth, Middlesex, and Burlington Counties in a broad range of family-law matters, including divorce, custody and parenting time, child support, alimony, equitable distribution, domestic violence, relocation, post-judgment enforcement and modification, adoption, premarital agreements, cohabitation, name changes, and other family-law matters.
Lauren approaches family law with intellectual curiosity, careful preparation, and practical judgment. She is interested not only in what the law is, but in how it operates in people’s lives, whom it serves well, where it falls short, and what it should become. She believes effective family-law representation requires understanding both the governing law and the larger context in which a client will live with the consequences of a legal decision.
In her cases, Lauren takes the time to learn the record, dig into the applicable law, identify what is legally significant, and think beyond the immediate dispute. She considers how decisions made today may affect a case months or years later and approaches strategy with an eye toward both the client’s present objectives and longer-term interests.
Lauren also believes clients should understand their own cases. Rather than simply telling a client what to do, she explains the law, the available options, the strengths and risks of a position, and the reasoning behind her advice. She gives candid advice even when the answer is difficult and works to ensure that clients have the information they need to make informed decisions about matters that will ultimately affect their own lives and families.
Lauren is comfortable both negotiating resolutions and advocating in court. She does not approach every family-law dispute in the same way. Her strategy depends on the facts, the law, the client’s objectives, and what the circumstances require. When she advances a position on a client’s behalf, she prepares to support it with the record and the law.
Lauren maintains particular professional interests in LGBTQ+ family law, adoption and family formation, disability and special-needs issues, and developing legal questions involving parenthood and the creation of families. As an LGBTQ+ attorney, representing members of her own community is especially meaningful to her. More broadly, Lauren is interested in the continuing development of family law as families, medicine, technology, and society evolve. She believes lawyers have responsibilities not only to individual clients, but also to their communities and the profession, including a responsibility to examine critically how the law operates and contribute to its continued improvement.
Lauren joined the Law Office of Rachel S. Cotrino, LLC in 2019 and served the firm as a paralegal, senior paralegal, and law clerk before becoming an attorney. Her years working on family-law matters before admission gave her substantial practical experience with the day-to-day realities of litigation and a foundation she now brings to her work as counsel.
Lauren earned her J.D. from Rutgers Law School, where she attended the evening program while continuing to work in the legal profession. She earned her B.A. in Political Science from Stockton University. At Rutgers, Lauren was named to the Dean’s List and was involved with OUTLaws, the Student Bar Association, If/When/How, the Women’s Law Caucus, and Delta Alpha Pi.
Lauren is an active member of the New Jersey legal community. Her professional memberships include the New Jersey State Bar Association and its LGBTQ Rights Section, the Mercer County, Ocean County, and Monmouth County Bar Associations, Q Law New Jersey, the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association, and the American Bar Association. Through these organizations, she is committed to continued professional development, building relationships within the bar, and contributing to the legal profession through writing, education, and service.
Outside the practice of law, Lauren enjoys reading, gardening, Broadway, and spending time with her wife and four children.
