Tracey Goyette Cote
Partner
Shaheen & Gordon Attorneys at Law
Tracey joined Concord law firm Shaheen & Gordon in 2010 and was elected a partner of the firm in 2013. A New Hampshire native, she received her bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and her Juris Doctor degree at the University of Maryland School of Law.
After a length of time as a transactional tax lawyer in Charlottesville, Virginia, with McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe, Goyette Cote returned to the Granite State to be closer to her family, where she now practices divorce and family law. She manages cases involving such issues as divorces involving valuation and division of businesses, wrongful removal of a child from their home, and state and collaborative divorces where parties make a contract to resolve differences respectfully without litigation.
Goyette Cote is also a member of the board of directors for NH LAKES, a Concord-based nonprofit that seeks to preserve the health of lakes and protect them from invasive plants and polluted runoff water. Her membership stems in part from her fond memories of growing up visiting her family’s getaway home of five decades on Merrymeeting Lake in New Durham. Goyette Cote dreams of hiking the Appalachian Trail in segments someday. She has one son, Evan, and two stepdaughters — Ella and Brooke — with her husband, criminal defense attorney Skip Campbell.
Were you always interested in pursuing a legal career?
I was an English major in college at Dartmouth and graduated without any real idea of what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be. I spent a year or two working in the development office fundraising at the Putney School in Vermont. In that process of thinking what I want to do long-term, I knew a lot of lawyers who were friends of my dad’s.
They always struck me as people who knew a lot about how the world worked. They understand the three branches of government and know more about communities, politics and elections, and at the time, that was what sort of drew me in. The lawyers I knew were also really actively involved in their communities. That’s what got me interested in going to law school, and I never looked back.
Why did you shift from tax law to family law?
The career shift was probably more attributable to geography than anything. I had been in Massachusetts at Ropes & Gray, but I moved back up to New Hampshire. It wasn’t realistic at that point to continue at Ropes & Gray since telecommuting and remote work wasn’t as prominent as it is now. The tax work here was very different, but it gave me an opportunity to really think about whether that was where I wanted to take my career.
A lot of the clients in New Hampshire are people who run small businesses. Tax law here isn’t building billion-dollar investment funds. Tax is a very complicated area of the law. If you know about the intricacies of partnership law for purposes of really large transactions, it doesn’t mean that you know how to advise a small business owner on the issues that are important to them.
The work in New Hampshire was different enough that I felt like I’d be starting all over.
What would you say to new lawyers in the field?
It’s up to you in a law firm to get experience and exposure to practice different areas so you can figure out what to do. Being a lawyer is hard work, and you have to love what you do. Part of your early years as a lawyer is just figuring that out and doing lots of different things to find what brings you professional joy. If you can articulate the vision and find a place that will give you the resources, then you’re 100% on the right path.
What advice do you have for women in the legal profession?
The field has changed tremendously since I started practicing law, and I think that there’s more opportunity available for women now than ever before. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that there are women in leadership positions; that’s not true in every law firm, but it’s true in a lot of them. The conversation changes when women are in the room. That’s not to say anything disparaging about my male colleagues, partners and friends, but the reality is we all bring a different perspective.
I think for young women and lawyers, there’s that issue of taking responsibility for your own path, to some extent, figuring out what you want and figuring out what you need. What are the resources you need in terms of time? What do you need in terms of a firm being willing to invest money in your practice. Being clear on those things, and then finding a place that will legitimately meet those needs matters.
