In a 53-page decision that at times reads like a partnership primer, the New Jersey Appellate Division has tackled the tricky issue of the monetary value of a lawyer's practice and in the process upended many aspects of a New Jersey Big Law attorney's divorce judgment.

The court on Tuesday reversed the trial judge's accepted valuation of the lawyer's stake in his firm—including “the value of goodwill defendant had as an equity partner in the firm”—in Slutsky v. Slutsky, a published decision.

Defendant Kenneth J. Slutsky has been with his firm since 1978, and an equity partner since 1984, the court said.