Under the American Rule, "attorneys' fees and disbursements are incidents of litigation and the prevailing party may not collect them from the loser unless an award is authorized by agreement between the parties or by statute or court rule." Matter of A.G. Ship Maintenance v. Lezak, 69 N.Y.2d 1, 5 (1986). Domestic Relations Law §237 is one such statute that provides for fees to be awarded to the less-monied spouse in matrimonial actions "as justice requires" in order to level the litigation playing field.

Parties can also provide for awards of fees in their settlement agreements, and "where the parties have agreed to provisions in a settlement agreement which govern the award of attorney's fees, the agreement's provisions, rather than statutory provisions, control." Ambrose v. Ambrose, 128 A.D.3d 746, 747 (2d Dept. 2015) (finding that defendant was entitled to an award of attorney fees to reimburse her for expenses incurred to enforce the stipulation where it expressly provided that in the event of a breach by one of the parties, the nonbreaching party was entitled to an award of attorney fees).