Catherine Murawski Deist

We had never hired a lawyer before and Catherine Deist came highly recommended for her professionalism, knowledge of military law, work ethic, and so much more. It was an extremely stressful time for our family and we could not have been happier with the outcome. My sons case was definitely unique an...d it was hard to imagine the possibility of a positive outcome of any kind. Investigations went on for months with more than enough evidence to ruin my sons future. Catherine was always available, organized, very personable, and delivered more than we could have possibly asked for. She worked relentlessly on my sons behalf, devoting personal time, to give him the best defense possible. Catherine’s performance in court was phenomenal. There wasn’t anything left out. My son walked away with far less than what we expected to include no jail time. I would recommend Catherine to anyone who needed a lawyer. She was invaluable in helping us during a difficult time and I cannot even begin to express the amount of gratitude I have for everything she did.

My wife and I hired Catherine Deist to represent us in a custody case involving a non-biological child. She gave us realistic expectations about the outcome, followed up in a timely manner to every correspondence we initiated, crafted a strong fact-based case, and presented it in a clear and convinc...ing manner which allowed the judge to rule in our favor. This was our first experience working with a lawyer and we were impressed with Catherine's resume and military experience. Upon initial consultation, we were immediately put at ease as Catherine laid out her plan to win custody in a tricky international case involving third-party standing as well as registration of documents (and their certified translations) from another country. During the initial hearings, Catherine told us what to expect and made sense of the legal jargon answering all questions to our satisfaction. At the final hearing, Catherine used both witness testimony and physical exhibits to punctuate the key points and arguments. Her performance was thorough, polished and professional and resulted in the judge assuring her that she'd more than met her burden. She has a keen sense of what the judge is thinking and can anticipate the judge's questions and propensities. This served us well as we were able to get full legal and physical custody with a favorable visitation order. If you are looking for a serious, well-spoken professional lawyer, we highly recommend Catherine Deist.

I live in NC but had a child custody and support case in VA. Ms. Deist was willing to work with me via phone and email so that I didn't have to travel all the way to VA until court. She worked on the case initially and then throughout the process. In the week or so leading up to the case I felt th...at she spent a lot of time preparing, consulting with the opposing counsel in my case and trying to come up with the most favorable solutions for me that we could achieve on the day of court. She also provided a lot of information about why she was doing things which may have seemed counterintuitive at first, but would set me up for success with my case if it ever needed to be litigated again the future. While it did take a little while to hear back on occasion, and I didn't receive constant updates, I knew that Ms. Deist was working on my custody case so it wasn't that big of a deal to me. The week before, she was in constant contact and put my mind at ease. I even changed my mind about agreeing to certain things at the last minute (literally) and she just ran with it, which was more evidence of how prepared she was to cover every aspect of the case.. As for the child support, the case was complicated, but in Juvenile Court it is fairly straightforward. She advised me of the potential outcomes beforehand so there wasn't any confusion on that court date. I didn't feel that she was quite as assertive in this case, but the judge seemed to already have his mind made up, so I don't think any number of persuasive arguments would have helped. Overall I felt that Ms. Deist was equally prepared for this case, however; the judge simply didn't allow her to present my case. I think this is just because of the unusual aspects of my case which would need to be handled in a higher court. She gave me the option to appeal to the higher courts and seemed totally comfortable doing this. My child and his mother were never married so I can't really say anything about her divorce/separation experience. Overall, I have no doubt that I will use Ms. Deist if I ever need a custody or support lawyer in the future. I would recommend her to anyone looking for the same. I am very glad that I went with her, especially because I was from out of state and didn't know anybody in the area that could provide a personal recommendation. I don't think anybody could have done a better job.