Elena Jaffe Tastensen has been representing the interests of New Yorkers since 1998, when she began her career as an Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.  Since 2004, Elena has devoted her private practice exclusively to the representation of men and women in family and criminal matters. While she continues to handle litigated matrimonial cases, Elena strongly believes that the collaborative approach to resolving matrimonial matters, as well as divorce and family mediation, results in better outcomes for clients and their families as they work through this time of transition in their lives.  Elena has handled hundreds of matrimonial matters in her career, and has successfully resolved many of them through the Collaborative process or mediation.  Elena is a founding member of the Collaborative Divorce Association of the Capital District, and a founding member of the Academy of Professional Family Mediators.  She is also an active member of the New York State Council on Divorce Mediation, the Collaborative Divorce Association of the Capital District, the Collaborative North Practice Group, the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, the New York State Bar Association, and sits on the Board of Directors of the Saratoga County Bar Association.