Randi L. Karmel

When I got divorced twelve years ago Randi was a colleague of my attorney. My original attorney was extremely experienced and yet urged me to bring in Randi as her co-counsel due to the unique circumstances of my (very painful) divorce, and Randi's unique skills and ability to navigate tough cases. I chose not to do so, but she advised my attorney and I nonetheless. Ten years later, when I ended up in family court on a post-divorce matter with my complicated and difficult ex-wife, my original attorney had retired. I ended up engaging Randi and learned why my original attorney sought her advice and counsel a decade earlier. She is an unbelievable talent. Her power and control in the courtroom enabled me to finally be heard fairly for the first time. She easily outmatched her very experienced adversary and got me the exact result we desired. I regret not having hired her in the first place, but I am deeply grateful for the hep and support she provided to me and my children more recently. She enabled me to motivate my ex to finally get the therapy she needed and that has benefited her, as well as me and our children. Not only is Randi an exemplary professional, but I now consider her a friend. I see that there is a single negative review on here, an outlier. I ti s nonsense and I am sure it should be ignored. It was clear that she cared deeply about my and my family, and I cannot recommend her highly enough to anyone in need of capable and sensitive counsel.

My ex husband who was / is bent on revenge even if our kids would be destroyed in the process was harassing me through the legal process. He has highly paid counsel who seemed to use the most aggressive litigation tactics imaginable. Randi Karmel is not just a "fighter" she is a smart divorce attorney. I hired Randi as I knew of the reputation she had with judges and other lawyers...... "highly respected". My kids futures and lives were at stake, I was not sleeping when I consulted with Randi about taking my case. Randi Karmel gave me back my sleep and my peace. Randi cares about her clients. Randi is an incredible lawyer and she has an incredible team. Hire Randi, I believe your legal outcome will be as good as can be achieved given the nuiances of your situation. *** I am posting anonymously only because my name is recognizable.

I was involved in an extremely contentious divorce due to a highly unethical adversary. I endured years of financial and emotional ruin before I decided that I needed to make a change. I called Randi's office on New Year's Eve after months of deliberation. It was the best decision I made throughout my long and arduous divorce. She called me back the same day, on New Year's Eve mind you, because she thought that I needed to hear from someone if I was desperate enough to call a divorce attorney on New Year's Eve. I cannot imagine any lawyer could care more about her clients than Randi. She is the real deal in every way. Her command of the law is exceptional, and if she doesn't know something or isn't 100% comfortable with it, she will confer with an acknowledged expert. She is relentless and aggressive when she needs to be. You will be glad she is in your corner, and trust me, you don't want to be on the other side of her when the going gets rough. She is incredibly ethical. Months after a bill was submitted incorrectly, she alerted me and gave me a refund even though the contract stated that if I didn't dispute any fees within 30 days, the amount on the invoice would be permanent. My divorce case did a 180 after I hired Randi and I cannot thank her enough for her service.

I worked with Randi for two years. She was not my first lawyer. I came across many lawyers through my contentious post divorce child related litigation. Randi not only is an expert on such matters, she took my case with a passion rare in her industry. She made my case her own, my cause her own and throughout the highs and lows of the case I could count on Randi for the guidance and representation second to none. She and her team (Danielle) are relentless hard working and knowledgeable individuals who have the experience to write up the motions and represent you before the judge. Divorce is not fun, choosing a lawyer is key. With Randi you set yourself on a path to a better place where your interests will be protected. One other thing that sets Randi apart- the human factor, at the end we are people with emotions and financial difficulties. Randi gets that, should these matters come up she has the emotional IQ to manage the soft matters as well.

I think if you are in the tough situation of having to get divorced, Randi will be a great advocate. She is knowledgeable, helpful, explains things carefully and has integrity. She also knows what she doesn't know, but she seems to know who does know - and helps you in the right direction. If I had met her early in my situation I am sure it would not have turned into the mess it has. She is decent and very articulate and comes highly recommended by a specialist in a certain area of divorce law who sent me to her as he thinks the world of her, and he is of the old school which is how I was referred to her. I think you would be in good hands, without a doubt.

Randi Karmel was very professional and informative. She was very attentive to my needs. She spent a great deal of her own time helping to guide me. Her concern was more for my situation than for financial gain. Legally, she was able to quickly hone in on what I needed to get done. I would recommend her without reservation.

I can’t say enough about Randi. Here are just a few reasons why. I started the process of divorce with another attorney. I hired her to review a separation agreement that my ex-wife and I had negotiated through a mediator. Since my attorney was reducing her case load temporarily to spend more time with her family it was the perfect case for her to take on - quick and easy, separation agreement in hand. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out to be as easy as we thought. Once the separation agreement was done the process stalled, badly. Given her personal obligations my attorney suggested that I transition my case to a lawyer who could dedicate the time to get the job DONE. There was no doubt in her mind that there would now be many challenges ahead. We had a great relationship at that point and so she only wanted me to have the best of the best given the situation. The lawyer she introduced me to was Randi Karmel. From the moment I retained Randi she was all over the process. She listened intently to what I wanted to accomplish and some of the challenges I foresaw. She counseled me on the pitfalls we might encounter that I might not have anticipated and she mapped out a guideline of tasks we had to accomplish and set realistic expectations for getting them done. Because this process had gone on for so long Randi and I set a hard and fast deadline to have the divorce completed. I won’t go into all the details but suffice it to say I had been separated for a few years with no divorce in sight and enough was enough. Once the plan was in place she immediately got the process restarted and was very successful in setting concrete steps with opposing counsel. While there was some heated negotiation throughout, Randi was able to create an extremely amicable relationship with my ex’s attorney, one based on mutual respect and common sense compromise (kudos to him too for being so professional). She always had my interests prioritized appropriately and refused to present them antagonistically for the sake of appearing tough. Don’t get me wrong, she is tough and people know it, but not because she comes out with showy and unproductive gimmicks or tactics. They know it because she is very intelligent, does her homework, works relentlessly toward her clients goals, surrounds herself with great associates and ALWAYS inserts thoughtfulness and empathy into the process. It illustrates how much she cares about what she is doing and who she is doing it for. Needless to say, once the new separation agreement was drafted, negotiated, modified, agreed to and signed, we were only partially done. We still needed to file the divorce and hit our deadline. Once filed we had two months. It was going to be extremely tight, maybe impossible to hit it. At that point there was a great deal of activity after filing and this is where I saw Randi’s associates shine right along with her. Since there was nothing I could personally do to move anything forward at this point it was all about communication from them about where we were at, and it was stellar. Randi was very responsive and informative throughout but if a “billable” conversation only required a yes or no, that is exactly what she gave me. She works very efficiently. Long story short, we made the deadline. I am absolutely convinced that I could never have done it without Randi and her dedicated team. Just like my former attorney promised, she got the job DONE. Bottom line: Hire her. Looking back, you will discover as I did that it was one of the best decisions you ever made.

If you are lucky enough to retain Randi L Karmel as your attorney, you now have the best of the best working for you. Starting in April of 2006, I went thru an extremely difficult and nasty divorce- orders of protection, supervised visitation with my own children, false imprisonment and even allegations of child abuse just to mention a few of the horrors. Yet, because of the incredible work done by Ms. Karmel I went from NO CUSTODY of my two sons to JOINT CUSTODY and then finally FULL CUSTODY AND MY EX-WIFE PAYS ME CHILD SUPPORT!!! Ms. Karmel truly cared about my case. Every singe call or message I sent (and there were hundreds) was answered or replied to the same day- some were even while she was away at a conference and even a few while on vacation. I will always remember how hard she fought in court for me. I deeply respect Ms. Karmel's professionalism and I trust her with my life and my children's as well. My name is Peter Vavasis. I am an extremely happy client and I am proud to say I know Randi L Karmel.

I hired Randi as my second attorney during my child custody/support case and was very happy with her work. She is honest, caring, moves things forward and is not intimidated nor will she tolerate childish behavior from the opposition. She is kind and warm and makes you feel like her colleague. Having worked for attorneys for 10 years myself, I can tell you that she is not your typical attorney in the best way possible. She takes the reigns and knows what is best. She was very communicative, open, responsive and direct. I wish everyone the blessing I had with her as my attorney.

Before I met Randi I have changed 2 attorneys for various reasons. When Randi agreed to take my (financially overcomplicated) case I felt relieved. From the very beginning, she has shown full commitment and professionalsm. All my e-mails and phone calls were returned within an hour. I have been receiving her e-mails as early as 5 am and as late as midnight, including the weekends. Randi is honest and straight-forward. She tells her clients excactly what to expect, she won't withhold any information from her clients, and she won't promise anything unreasonable. She won't do any unnecessary work to run up her bills, unlike other attorneys I've dealt with. Randi is knowledgeble and highly competent in her field. She brought in her financial analyst whose finacial reports substantially help the case to settle. I do believe Randi takes each of her cases very seriously and she always fights for her cleints' rights and wishes. Every time we had a court appearance, Randi was always well-prepared and she never felt intimidated by the opponets even though the opponents behaved as they "owned the court" and were on the first-name basis with the judge.

Randi Karmel is a great lawyer. She is beyond wonderful, as far as lawyers go. She came into a messy situation, where my ex and I had been fighting post settlement now for 6 years. After brutalizing me financially, my ex had started with DV. I finally stood up to him when he went after our 9 year old. Ex is a big law name partner, previous 5 lawyers were afraid of him, and his counsel. Randi was never intimidated by them. She is thorough and decisive. Within 15 minutes of meeting me she grasped the intricate details of years of fighting, and zeroed in on key points to start with. Randi gives you her full attention. I had heard she likes children, this is so true. When I needed to meet with her and didnt have child care, Randi saw my child in the waiting lounge and made my child feel comfortablet. She developed a rapport in no time, and gave my child time, respect and consideration. I respect her, when caught up in the fight she recenters me to focus on our daughter, and her best interests. Randi has a fun personality and knows many people, an added bonus (i.e., mediators, court therapists etc). My ex, who delights in breaching our stipulations, tries to take all things away from our kid. Randi is always there, fielding calls about refusals to pay for x-rays, camp, school activities, tuition etc. Randi is fiesty, she is willing to use her passion to go to the mat for her clients. Once waiting in the hallway while all the lawyers were in the back with the Judge, I could hear Randi's voice roaring to match the Judge. When we had applied for a new private school last spring, Randi called me no less than 10 times the day (not billable and only out of concern) we were to hear from the admissions office, she really cared about whether our kid was admitted. I like that Randi has an unusual trait for NYC lawyers, she is honest. She always tells me her opinion of when I don't have a chance, she does not blow smoke. Over a year ago I was facing eviction ( pulled all my rent money to pay to pursue a TOP, then defend an OSC and TRO to quash my TOP). I had paid a previous attorney an extraordinary amount of money. I was lucky enough to hire Randi. After knowing me only 3 months, she gave me a post dated check back so I could use it to pay back rent; my ex had offered me a "loan"with terms I couldn't possibly repay. Randi saved my daughter and me from being homeless, deferring her payment unprompted. Shhhhh, Randi Karmel is not only a fighter, but she is kind and caring. You want this woman to represent you, trust me. She is a hidden gem in a nasty field of greed and cottage corruption aka nyc matrimony and divorce law. We always have ongoing conflicts, so this will always say I hired her under one month ago. We are going on two years, only 12 more until my daughter is 21! PS - how I got Randi's name. When I was forced to file for my TOP, I called my ex's old law partner from his firm. I had dealt with that woman when my ex's attorney was on vacation maybe 4 years ago (pro se at the time). I requested attorney names, the woman was very kind and almost apologetic for my ex's actions. Her secretary called with a list of names. I wrote them down, and as an after thought, added "Please tell her this isn't [ex's name] economically screwing me per usual, he went after our kid, this is for DV and a TOP." The partner's secretary called back in 5 minutes and said " call these names, in this order..." Randi was the top name. Unfortunately she was on trial, but I was lucky enough to retain her a couple months later.

Finding the right attorney in New York is very difficult. There are thousands to chose from. I researched and interviewed quite a few. Randi Karmel was the attorney I worked with and I remain thrilled with my choice. She is not a part of a huge law firm so when you call, you actually get her on the phone, When you email, you get a response within the day. And most important of all, she is very smart and very savvy. She went up against attorneys I was very intimidated by and didn't blink an eye. She fought for me and won a very favorable settlement. I can not say enough about her. I recommend her highly for anyone going through divorce/ separation/custody settlements.

We called for some advice on where to even begin with a separation arrangement that would be amicable for both of us. The first consultation was free and when we finally got to it the divorce was seamless and painless. Great experience.

Great attorney very well versed in her practice. Great team also. She kept in contact with me. Even though the case went on for a while she was patient and later everything out on the consultation

I hired Randi as my divorce attorney. I do not recommend her. Randi urged me to agree to the very first settlement offer from my ex's attorney, an offer that would have stripped me of all my assets including my home. Randi made no effort to negotiate a better deal. I fired Randi and negotiated directly with my ex myself (and got myself a very good settlement, thank you) but Randi still charged me for every dime of the retainer and more.