Lisa Marie Vari

After a year and a half and after paying them a lot of money to handle my divorce, I switched to a very good attorney who got my divorce finalized in a very short time. Later, reading some of her rave reviews, I realized I recognized some of the names that gave those reviews - some were her employee...s' names. One great review was made by a friend of mine who also happened to be a friend of hers. Reading his review, you would think that he had hired her as his attorney. He did not. He told me he paid $500 for his divorce with information he got from an ad in the paper. So why did he write a misleading review? Hmm! While still using her law firm, I had the occasion to be on a 3 way phone conversation with Lisa and my attorney. My attorney, (who left this law firm not long after I ceased doing business with them) gave me some wrong info. This was after a paralegal at her firm had also given me wrong info. On that phone call, Lisa told my attorney that apparently she has to retrain everyone in her office. Who says that to a client! Doing business with her law firm was a horrible, horrible experience.

I did not have a good experience with this attorney, unfortunately. She may be a better fit for someone else, but I will explain my experience. Navigating divorce (with children involved) is challenging. I had a consult block time scheduled. The attorney called late - it's understandable and things h...appen, so it was not a big deal. However, while we were speaking, the attorney had to take a call from a friend - again, she did apologize and said she got an alarming text message. Again, I do understand life happens. But, I was a bit disappointed that as she and I were taking, that she was reading text messages, as this was a paid consult at $400 (that I had to pay to even schedule the call). Despite us not using the full time for the allotted time of what I paid, instead of immediately receiving a refund, I did have to reach out to the office more than once. What really made the experience awful was this - I asked a letter to be issued to my spouse saying certain toxic behaviors must be stopped or will pursue with the divorce. The attorney told me (and this is the truth, believe it or not), to issue the letter it would be $3500. It would be $3500 as a retainer to proceed with the divorce AND $3500 to ONLY issue the letter and not to proceed with the divorce (if the home environment improved and I did not pursue). I was speechless. I then asked a handful of attorneys I knew personally, and they absolutely thought that it was ridiculous, absurd, senseless and greedy, to even suggest charging that amount taking into account it may just be to issue a letter. The more I thought about it, I was so disappointed with the lack of care, concern, and overall fairness. I was able to find other attorneys who I could connect with much better, more genuinely, and where I felt heard. These life changes are very challenging, and I could not have been more disappointed with my experience. What I know now is there are attorneys who will be fully present and connect with you. The difference is life-changing.

I chose this firm for my divorce based on reviews and my $250 hour consultation where they promised all kinds of things that they never delivered. My only marital asset after a short, 4-year marriage was the marital house and I am still in litigation for over a year. You'll go weeks without heari...ng from them, then when you do don't ever expect compassion, caring or even a good explanation. Most of the time I came off the phone calls even more confused than going into them. I have a doctorate in pharmacy, so I am by no means unfamiliar to fine print or law. There were several instances I had to explain to the lawyers what the best legal move was for me at the time and they agreed! What was I paying them for?? They never made me feel at ease with my situation, their lawyers were always out of the office for a week at a time, I had emails that went completely unanswered and then out of no where I got hit with a bill. I strongly suggest you save your pennies if you're choosing to go with this place, you'll need it for the hours of wasted time, not to mention they don't care about your emotional well being.

I hired this firm because they were touted to me as "the best of the best" in Pittsburgh. Initially my consultation with Lisa herself went very well and I hired the firm. Since then (over 3 yrs) I have had only 2 phone calls returned, no results, and the Jr. associate assigned to my case was poorly p...repared, not knowledgeable about my situation, and handled my hearing poorly, not raising a single issue that I asked her too and ignoring me when I tried to prompt her to raise issues or objections. As such, my hearing was one sided and my ex spouse prevailed. Obviously the Jr. associates don't like to listen to educated clients (I am a law school graduate) and don't like to take advice from non family law practitioners. I did a far better job reading up and handling my case solo.

Spent well over $30,000 with her firm. Complete inability to communicate with me. Every communication I did receive started out with that they needed more money before they would even respond. After 2 yrs and thousands spent I couldn't even get a phone call when my current attorney left her practice.....- mid case!! Horrible representation. I ended up with less custody than when I started and my divorce is still ongoing. Needless to say she was fired. Save your time and money!!!