Melissa Suzanne Vanzile

Well, I am at my one year anniversary of my divorce finalizing so I thought I would give my feedback with respect to my experience with Ms. Vanzile for other folks to consider. For reflection, I had a very contentious divorce negotiation with the opposing counsel, with OC trying to do her best to re...present her client by overstating just about everything possible. We actually came to an agreement in a settlement meeting then several months later OC wanted to renegotiate. Melissa helped me stick pretty much to the original agreement (through much adversity). Importantly, with Melissa’s advice we were always negotiating from the high ground. The things that stood out as the starkest contrast between Ms. Vanzile and OC was her promptness in everything, her professionalism and her attention to detail. For example, Ms. Vanzile would make time to call me between 15 minute breaks while she was in court to help advise me on next steps. This resulted in our turn-around time averaging a few days, while OC took anywhere between 2 weeks and 5 months. During the period OC was not responding Ms. Vanzile continuously sent inquiries. On professionalism, I couldn’t have felt more appropriately represented. The tenor of Ms. Vanzile’s correspondence to OC was always professional and decidedly neutral in tone. In contrast, OC’s correspondence frankly sounded like a junior high student airing grievances and trying to be contentious. As a professional myself, I greatly value timeliness in correspondence. I was honestly shocked with the speed with which Ms. Vanzile turned around the various documents and correspondences. The lawyers in my company with whom I work never display the same alacrity that is for sure. (This is really important when you are going through a stressful divorce). Finally, the absolute most important thing Ms. Vanzile did was strategically word the PSA in order to maintain my ability to have freedom of choice with respect to my children’s lives. This was of utmost importance to me. In the past year this attention to detail has already born fruit and limited my exposure to requests for additional spending on my part. She ensured that I didn’t get “put into a corner” based on the the wording of the PSA. This made sure I didn’t get put into a situation where the wording in the PSA made it so that I didn’t have a say in various things related to our children. Again, issues have already come up in the past year and I am able to simply point to the PSA and say, “that is not what we agreed to in the PSA”. Really, couldn’t have asked for more.

Ms. Vanzile is the worst attorney I have ever dealt with. During our first meeting, she assured me that my ex-wife's initial settlement offer was about twice what I should expect to settle for. After several months and twice the initial retainer amount she said it should take, she advised me to accep...t the original settlement offer! She didn't want to use any of the tactics she said she would during our initial consultation and most of the time I felt she wasn't operating in my best interest but hers. Personally I don't think she, who doesn't have children of her own, should handle divorces involving children. She's a cold unempathetic person that has no idea what kids need in terms of stability, etc., and therefore should not give any advice regarding their well-being. She was a complete waste of money for me and be warned that she loves to send multiple frivolous emails a day in order to charge $60 for each. Bottom line, I agree with the previous reviewer-stay away!