Tracey provides creative, tenacious, and compassionate representation to individual clients needing assistance with divorce and family law issues. Tracey serves on the Management Committee for Shaheen & Gordon and is the Chair of the Domestic Relations Practice Group. She is also a member of the firm’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee.
Tracey’s cases include:
- Individuals pursuing an amicable, cost-efficient divorce
- Collaborative divorce cases in which the parties contract to resolve their differences privately, respectfully, and without litigation
- Divorce cases involving the valuation and division of closely held businesses
- Cases involving the identification of trust interests and a determination of whether such interests constitute marital property to be divided in a divorce
- Divorce cases involving the valuation and division of state, federal, and private pensions, military retired pay, deferred compensation plans, stock options, and other employment benefits
- Divorce and parenting cases involving allegations of substance abuse or emotional, physical, or sexual abuse against a spouse or child
- Parents confronting complex jurisdictional issues following the wrongful removal of a child from the child’s home state
Her clients include doctors, nurses, dentists, business owners and executives, airline pilots, teachers, accountants, police officers, firefighters, utility, communications, and energy workers, as well as at-home parents and spouses.
Before finding her professional home as a family law attorney at Shaheen & Gordon, Tracey worked as an associate in the tax departments of McGuireWoods LLP and Ropes & Gray, where she assisted investors, businesses, investment banks, and nonprofit organizations in planning the tax aspects of private equity investments and other transactions. She graduated first in her class from the University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore and clerked for Judge Francis D. Murnaghan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Admissions
- New Hampshire State Bar
- Virginia State Bar
- U.S. District Court, District of New Hampshire
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
Career
- Partner, Shaheen & Gordon, P.A.
- Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection, Dartmouth College
- Ropes & Gray
- McGuireWoods LLP
- Law Clerk, Judge Francis D. Murnagahan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit
Professional Associations
- New Hampshire Bar Association, Committee on Cooperation with the Courts
- Virginia Bar Association
- American Bar Association, Family Law Section
- New Hampshire Association for Justice
- Collaborative Law Alliance of New Hampshire
Community Involvement
- NH Lakes, Board of Directors
Awards & Honors
- 2024 Outstanding Women in Business Award, New Hampshire Business Review
- Named Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers for Family Law, Concord, 2020, 2023, and 2025
- Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America since 2019 for work in Family Law
- Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Rating
- Selected to Super Lawyers 2020-2024
- Selected to Super Lawyers Rising Stars 2008
Education
- St. Paul’s School, Concord, NH
- B.A., Dartmouth College
- J.D., University of Maryland School of Law
Publications & Presentations
- Tracey Goyette Cote, Discovery Techniques in Family Law, N.H. Bar Association Basic Family Law CLE, December 8, 2017
- Tracey Goyette Cote, Common and Not So Common Family Law Issues and Answers, National Business Institute Family Law from A to Z CLE, May 17, 2017
- Tracey Goyette Cote, How to Tell the Kids You’re Getting Divorced, Living Safer, Vol. 8, Ed. 2, 2016
- Tracey Goyette Cote, Custody/Adoption of Foreign Stepchildren, Hague Convention & International Abduction by Parents, National Business Institute Advanced Issues in Divorce and Family Law CLE, June 14-15, 2016
- Tracey Goyette Cote, Ethical Considerations in Drafting and Negotiating Prenuptial Agreements, N.H. Association for Justice Trial Bar News, Summer 2015
- Nancy Ball & Tracey Goyette Cote, Learning From The War of the Roses, N.H. Business Review, April 20, 2012
- Invited to testify before the New Hampshire House Commerce Committee regarding the tax implications of legislation extending health insurance coverage to divorced spouses
- Invited to deliver a training session to New Hampshire family law judges and marital masters on the application of legislation extending health insurance coverage to divorce spouses
Representative Cases
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is different and case results referred to in this website are not intended to be, nor should they be understood as, a representation that equivalent results will be achieved in any given case.
- In a collaborative divorce, structuring a creative buyout of wife’s equitable interest in husband’s business that allowed both parties to achieve goals of financial security and preservation of their post-divorce relationship
- Secured primary residential responsibility for a mother who was accused by father of abandoning their child after mother enrolled in an out-of-state graduate program
- Secured possession of the marital home and primary residential responsibility for a father of three daughters after he initially moved out of the home
- Obtained orders for the return of an infant to a father and restoration of his parenting rights after mother wrongfully took the child outside the state of New Hampshire.
