Ordered that the order is modified, on the law and the facts, (1) by reducing the amount of the Law Guardian's fee to the sum of $30,412.52, and (2) by deleting the provision thereof which directed that the mother and the father would be jointly and severally liable for the fee, and substituting therefor a provision directing that the mother be liable for two-thirds of the fee and the father be liable for one-third of the fee; as so modified, the order is affirmed, without costs or disbursements.
Under the circumstances presented here, the Family Court's determination regarding the Law Guardian's fee was not improper (see, Hughes v. Hughes, 224 A.D.2d 389). We reduce the fee, however, by the amount charged for alleged paralegal work performed by the Law Guardian's legal secretary. Further, the court's direction that the parents be jointly and severally liable for the fee was an improvident exercise of its discretion where the parties had previously stipulated that the mother would be responsible for two-thirds of the fee and the father would be responsible for one-third of the fee. Thompson, J.P., Altman, Goldstein and McGinity, JJ., concur.