Abigail Silverman Leeds

I hired Abby when I was arrested. She came highly recommended from a friend who had had a similar situation. Abby was professional and very timely in her response and the information she relayed to me. She was also very honest with me about things and when it came down to my case, she did everythi...ng she could to put me in the best scenario possible. I felt as though I was in good hands from start to finish.

I hired Abigail in January 2023 to handle my divorce. I was told that, given the circumstances, it would be a fairly simple process and anticipated it would be completed within 90 to 120 days. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I often found myself trying to contact her for weeks without receiving... a direct answer about the status of my case. Abby frequently excused the delays by claiming it was because I wanted to minimize costs. While it’s true I was mindful of expenses—as a single mother of three working two jobs—I still expected the work to be completed efficiently. Abruptly, at the end of October, Abby informed me that she was “winding down the divorce portion” of her practice and told me I needed to find new counsel. By this point, she had depleted my retainer and most of my additional payments, leaving me with no choice but to spend more money on hiring new counsel. When my new attorney reviewed my case, they found that Abby had done nothing but file the initial complaint during the entire time she represented me. Furthermore, Abby had “highly” recommended I accept the support amount offered, even though it was lower than appropriate. She had advised me to request APL (Alimony Pendente Lite) but failed to mention that accepting the proposed support amount would reduce payments due to the assumption that the children’s father would have custody 35% of the time. This was despite me explicitly telling her that he had no interest in being involved with the children. Abby not only severely misrepresented me but also left me in an unethical and difficult position, forcing me to scramble to find the funds to hire new counsel.

I hired Abby after having a bad experience with another attorney, who made me feel like he did not value my input related to my child's custody arrangement . Abby always made me feel like my case was a top priority for her, really listened to what I was looking for, and helped me to navigate the pro...cess to optimize the outcome for my child and limited the contention that can typically arise in these types of things. Abby also went out of her way to meet me during times/days that would work for me given my nontraditional work schedule, which I really appreciated.

We had hired Ms Leeds for one of two cases. She knew the date scheduled for court but the morning of is when she decided to let everyone else know she had gone on vacation. Court was rescheduled and when I arrived she was offended I didn’t know her face and entire hearing discussed with her DA buddie...s what they were gonna do.... she knew nothing of her clients case which she had in her hands and looked at it like it was supposed to talk to her. She did not at all represent her client, I had to give her the death stAre or speak up myself to speak on her clients behalf. Also, instead of dealing with the charges she misinformed her client to get him to agree to continue... HE HAD NO CHARGES AND SHE CONTINUED IT! Most likely to get her greedy hands into the next charge in which she was to charge more but the first was paid in full and not yet dealt with... Not only did we have this horrible unnecessary experience. She was absolutely almost impossible to get a hold of by phone, text, email even Facebook. She has all clients paperwork. ALL ORIGINAL PAPERWORK no copies were made! Did I mention she failed to write up an agreement of services? What lawyer does not have some type of written agreement with their clients?? We fired her about a month ago But we still try to call her for the inmate only proof of innocence alas, still No reply from Ms Abby Leeds. We don’t even know if she knows she was fired!! Completely and totally unprofessional in any and all standards and we will be contacting the Bar Association as well as others!