Anne E. Gillespie

I've known Attorney Gillespie almost 30 years, including working with her at the Department of Children and Families. I have referred multiple clients to her, including recently referring one of my best friends to her for a divorce; she and her staff worked zealously to obtain an excellent result, d...espite the chaotic and unreasonable party on the other side. I could not have asked for a better outcome for my friend.

I have known Anne for many years. I have worked with her and referred clients to each other successfully for a long time. All of the clients we have shared have nothing but great things to say about Anne. Some of those things are communication, genuine care for her clients and families. She is always... doing the right thing for her clients and everyone around her. I would gladly recommend Anne for her services.

I switched to working with Attorney Gillespie in the middle of an extremely difficult and contentious divorce. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. If I could give Attorney Gillespie more than give stars for this review, I would. She was able to get an extremely (and unusually) good out...come for me--better than I had dared hoped. Anne is an excellent lawyer, but she also has a deep, psychological understanding of people as well. It is the latter which makes her, in my opinion, an extraordinary lawyer. It was her ability to straddle those two worlds--legal and psychological--that I believe ultimately resulted in my very favorable outcome. There are two few lawyers out there who truly understand domestic violence, in all of its permutations, and how it effects both the divorce and the aftermath of the divorce. In my case, when I came to Attorney Gillespie, I was already divorced, but things were going disastrously. She was able to handle the complexity and the difficulty of my situation, while ALWAYS being compassionate. She was never scared away by the challenges of my case (which abounded). I truly appreciated the combination of her powerful (and, when needed, intimidating) presence in court and her truly gentle nature. I am sure that there are some lawyers out there who are as hard-working, dedicated, ethical, intelligent, and well-versed in the law as Attorney Gillespie. But I think you would be hard pressed to find any of them who are as knowledgeable about domestic violence, and who are that magic combination of fierce and compassionate. If you are mired in a contentious divorce, you simply can do no better than Attorney Gillespie.

I hired Anne to represent me in my extremely difficult and contentious divorce, and it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. We didn't have a lot of assets to divide - no house, no retirement accounts, no open credit cards, only two bank accounts totalling 3-4 digits. And we worked out ...the division of property almost immediately. This should have been a very simple open-and-shut divorce. So why was it so difficult and contentious? Why did I have to hire Anne? To be blunt: my ex-wife. She did everything in her power to make this hard. Before I ever talked to Anne, my ex kicked me out of the house; alienated the kids against me; kept me from seeing the kids; accused me of everything from hiding money and trying to beggar her and the kids, right up through being dangerous to the kids; and threatened to take the kids out of state. It is at that point that I contacted and hired Anne to help me file for divorce and represent me throughout the process. Like most people, I had no experience with lawyers except what I'd seen on TV, and so I had no idea what to expect. What I got was a highly compassionate person who was as interested in helping me deal with the trauma I was going through as she was in helping me with the divorce itself. Someone who made it very clear, at a time when I felt nothing in my life was under my control, that she although would advise me and present me with options and a legal perspective, *I* would make the decisions and be in control. She explained things as many times, and in as many different ways, as I needed until I understood them. True to her word, she gave me options and preferences on legal matters, backing them up with (anonymized) past cases, but always kept in mind the particulars of my case and my situation. She (along with my therapist and others) helped me realize just how controlling and difficult my ex had been for years, and how that had affected me. She always considered my financial situation when discussing options. There were times when the "best" option wasn't possible because I couldn't afford it, so she provided other choices. She was there for me the night that my ex figured out that I was going through with filing for divorce and stalked me to a therapy appointment, preventing me from leaving unless I agreed to talk with her. On the first day we were in court, when I couldn't make myself walk past my ex to leave for lunch, she acted as a physical barrier, walking between us so I felt safe. On that first day in court, she stood firm against my ex's lies, pushing back every attempt to tear down my case. We came out of that first day with a set of Temporary Orders that were very fair to both my ex and me, in large part because Anne countered every ridiculous, illogical thing that my ex tried through her lawyer with cold, hard facts and a solid grasp of the legal issues. This included setting up a parenting time schedule, letting me see my kids again, after two months apart. Over the next 18 months, my ex fired her lawyer, blew off deadlines, hired a temporary lawyer, tried every trick in the book to avoid following the Orders, and responded to no fewer than 4 proposed Agreements (each better for her than the last) with more trickery, lies, and bad-faith negotiations. I can't find words to describe how Anne handled this - fending off my ex's attacks and shielding me from the worst of it. Or how it felt to watch her being so tough on my ex while at the same time working so compassionately with me to craft the next proposed Agreement and helping me de-traumatize. Ultimately, we ended up with an Agreement that works. I have Anne to thank for that. I have no doubt that if I had more money, this could have ended much faster by going to trial. If we had, Anne would have eaten my ex alive. But I couldn't afford it, and Anne was respectful of that. Like I said - heart of gold, fists of steel.

When I need a consultation around a clinic issue in regards to patient privacy, Anne was the person to go to. She was first and foremost concerned with my protection in the matter and kept me calm though what could have been unnerving. As a therapist, I like to have a sound referral to give to cli...ents when they need a lawyer for child custody and divorce matters. Anne is the person I confidently referred to as she is really interested in helping her client figure out what they want and then helping them get it without drama and dragging things out. She is brilliant and practical. She speaks respectfully and with confidence. She has the experience that I like to have in an advocate and counsel.