Christopher B Kleister

Unresponsive, unprofessional, and often standoffish. I hired him as my divorce attorney and as soon as my money was processed, he started lagging on response time- sometimes up to a full month. When confronted, i was told i was "not paying him enough to care" but for some reason he also refused to ne...gotiate what i would need to pay him (beyond his $300/hr fee) to be more attentive. i stuck with it because i did not want to go through the hassle of finding another attorney, and he is local to the court where our divorce is processing- a decision which turned out to be a huge mistake. I did a lot of the work of negotiating the settlement myself, with almost zero guidance or counsel, and his poor organizational skills ended up potentially adding months onto the process. it's already been a year and half, and i still have no idea whether actual divorce papers have been filed in court or not. I just fired him this morning because he responded to a list of questions ive been asking for weeks (after actively avoiding several emails and calls for the past three) with an email saying: "I am busy on trials last week and this week. So I really cannot [provide] a timeline when I will get to address these issues" maybe not the ugliest response, but after more than a year of similar excuses, it was more than enough to put the final nail in the coffin. --- if you would like a lawyer who actually seems to care about you or your divorce beyond the initial consultation- not the guy. --- if you would like a lawyer who answers the phone when you call, or responds to calls and emails within a week- not the guy. --- if you would like a lawyer who lets you know more than an hour before you are due to appear on camera in court- apparently also not the guy. im not sure how much money all these high-praise-review clients paid him to give them such great service, but my experience was obviously nowhere near as nice. the only legitimate reason i can think of that he would treat me so differently is that i am no longer a resident of his community so my long-term view of him doesn't carry any weight locally, maybe? either way, good riddance. save yourself the potential trouble and look elsewhere.

I hired Mr. Kleister to represent me in a family court matter, and to assist me in obtaining joint legal custody of my toddler son. He was late to the hearing, appeared disorganized, was dismissive of my chief concerns, and was unsuccessful in achieving a fair and equal parenting arrangement between... me and my son's mother. I was extremely disappointed with the entire experience and Mr. Kleister's representation.

I can't sum up in a paragraph the level of deceit and how completely unprofessional Christopher Kleister and his staff treat their own clients. I'm filing a grievance with the NY State Bar Association against him to hopefully prevent what happened in my case happening to anyone else and/or their chil...dren. The arrogance, the completely rude and hypocritical things that he said about me and to me would have shocked the judge and other attorneys involved. His personal feelings are what they are but if he doesn't do his deligrnce to protect and defend me from any and all untrue accusations especially when he had a very big file that contained forensic evidence to prove such allegations were false but never even brought them up to the attention of any of the other attorneys or the judge what's the point in him being there? He did way more damage to my case, my future and my children than anyone else! He was my attorney and he did absolutely nothing to help me or attempt to see me have a good outcome. At the time my soon to be ex and I weren't speaking at all for 3 years except through our attorneys but recently that's changed drastically. To hear that my own lawyer spoke so negatively about me to opposing counsel & to my husband in a bitter & nasty divorce and custody case is appalling. I have not only a grievance against him and his staff but I am appealing the settlement that he basically forced me into. I stayed in open court to the judge and other attorneys involved I did not agree with the terms so the judge was going to adjourn it until the next day to give me time to address my serious concerns so Chris Kleister took me in the hallway and made it all sound so much different and there's nothing to worry about. Well his staff prepared the actual settlement from what we stated in the transcript yet they left very important stipulations from what's in that transcript out. Incompetence on top of ride and unprofessional conduct. Stay far away from this firm if you're in a bad situation or nasty divorce because Christopher Kleister does what he wants based on what he thinks but at no time did he do only what was best for his client which I believe is the summary of his little paragraph about what a "great job he will do no matter how complex your case may be". He failed to mention his lack of ability to keep his personal feelings and things he's told in confidence by his client between himself and that client! I walked away from a 3 & half year case SO MUCH WORSE OFF THAN WHEN I STARTED. I had used another attorney for the 1st 3 years and we were set to get everything we were seeking because it was fair and the right thing for all involved but in less than 6 MONTHS Chris Kleister destroyed it all.