About Gillian Van Cooney

Most Likely to Succeed

A cream-colored voodoo doll, a gag gift from her daughter more than 20 years ago, sits on a round table opposite a large desk in the West Los Angeles family law office of Judith R. Forman. “Some [clients] poke it two or three times with a pin,” Forman says. “Sometimes they’ll ask if they can add to it.” The doll has writing all over it—excessive weight gain, dandruff, herpes—ailments that past clients have wished upon their estranged spouses. Forman, chuckling at these add-ons, …