Stuart Skok Law and The Next Chapter LLC - Rockville, MD

Divorce Lawyer Turned Author | Helping High-Performing Adults Break Repeating Relationship Patterns | Creator of The Next Chapter Method™

Stuart Skok is the principal and owner of Stuart Skok Law LLC, founded in 2017, and now Stuart Skok Law and The Next Chapter LLC, founded in 2026. With more than 30 years of experience, she represents clients in complex family law matters, including divorce, custody, domestic violence, prenuptial and separation agreements, and post-divorce litigation. She is admitted to practice in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Colorado, and before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Recognized as one of the Top 100 Matrimonial and Family Law Attorneys in Maryland by The National Advocates: Top 100, Ms. Skok maintains an Avvo “Superb” rating and holds certifications in Civil and Family Law Mediation and Collaborative Law. She has earned the highest peer and judicial rating of AV Preeminent* from Martindale-Hubbell and served on the Peer Review Panel for the Attorney Grievance Commission for Maryland.

Over the course of her career, Ms. Skok identified a recurring pattern among high-functioning clients: despite insight, education, and prior experience, many continued to encounter the same relationship outcomes. That observation led to the development of her proprietary Next Chapter Method™, a structured five-step framework designed to address the underlying drivers of repeated relationship patterns rather than their surface manifestations.

She is the author of Handbook on Separation and Divorce in Maryland, Fourth Edition, as well as The Next Chapter After Heartbreak™, which introduces this method and expands her work beyond legal resolution to include post-divorce behavioral change and decision-making. She is also the host of The Next Chapter podcast, where she examines the intersection of legal transition, personal responsibility, and long-term life redesign.

Ms. Skok’s practice reflects both dimensions of this work: resolving immediate legal disputes while bringing a more rigorous framework to the patterns that often give rise to them. Her professional recognitions include being named among the Top 50 Women Attorneys in Washington, D.C. by Washington Lawyer, the Top 50 Women Attorneys in Maryland by Baltimore magazine, Top Ten Leaders in Collaborative Law by Ten Leaders Cooperative, and a Top Family Law Attorney by Bethesda Magazine.

Ms. Skok has served as past president of the Montgomery County Chapter of the Women’s Bar Association of Maryland, past president of the Collaborative Divorce Association, Inc., past co-chair of the Family Law Section for Montgomery County, Maryland, and past Barrister of the Montgomery County Maryland Inn of Court.

She earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Denver and her Juris Doctor from West Virginia University College of Law.

* AV®, AV Preeminent®, Martindale-Hubbell Distinguished and Martindale-Hubbell Notable are certification marks used under license in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell certification procedures, standards and policies. Martindale-Hubbell® is the facilitator of a peer review rating process. Ratings reflect the anonymous opinions of members of the bar and the judiciary and fall into two categories – legal ability and general ethical standards.