Laura E Keene

Hired her and she had a bad attitude but promised results. As soon as I paid her, things went downhill fast and her attitude / handling of matters went downhill faster than anything. She makes a ton of mistakes (very costly mistakes) that she will never own up to. Had to grieve her after she cost me ...and my children dearly (well beyond the exorbitant amount I paid her) due to her misconduct.

From 2006-2016, Laura was consistently ill prepared, unavailable, dismissive, and out-maneuvered, yet always lambasted the judge as incompetent. She never won a single contempt hearing. She lost every hearing until Jan, 2016 when she won emergency custody. 5 months later, an appeals court overturn...ed the ruling; she violated due process laws by failing to file a proper Notice of Hearing. – She refused to give me any credit for time preparing a response to the appeal despite this being her error. I documented years of severe parental alienation (PA) in a chronological 66-page case document with figures, texts, emails, and a table of contents; she never reviewed the document. She failed to use a very explicit conclusion in a Guardian ad litem report that the “…. caused the children’s behavior”. A renowned PA expert and author testified. Pre-trial, he wrote “I believe … are victims of severe…”; she failed to read the statement, introduce it as evidence, or ask him about it. Her response to the appeals court decision was typical of constant “catch up” mode; she promptly scheduled an emergency hearing alleging a fake “emergency”. I told her not to argue that my child was suicidal, because he was not and never was. The real emergency was parental-facilitated drug use, after I got custody, I sent him to a treatment for 10 weeks and returning to the other parent would be catastrophic. She replied “this is the only way to get [the judge] to act”. She spent the entire hearing arguing this false emergency despite my contention that even IF my child was suicidal, he would have been at less risk at the other parent’s, because that perchild facilitated his drug use. That’s exactly what the judge correctly ruled; the judge even commented that drug-use was better than the alternative. Laura never questioned my child’s psychiatrist about her statements that his “… contributed to the delinquency of a minor”. Laura refused to talk on the phone, instead demanding letters, yet her responses were extremely curt and rarely reflected the theme or intent of the letters leading me to believe she routinely only skimmed them for main points. She consistently responded to 1 or 2 perceived main points. When I called to explain she missed the point and tried to explain it, her assistant was just as aggressive, cutting me off and demanding another letter. Laura was relentlessly outmaneuvered; the judge blocked testimony of my child’s psychologist based on obscure case law from 1962. During depositions, she rarely asked more than 5 questions before confidently announcing “I’m done”; same thing in court: “I have nothing else your honor” while opposing attorneys worked for hours. A Final hearing in 2014 was typical, Day 1 allocated to my childs’ mother whose attorney used every second. Day 2 allocated to me. At 10:15 on Day 2, Laura announced “I’ve nothing else your honor” giving away 5 hours of my time despite reams of issues. That Dec hearing was for events from Oct the previous year; she flatly refused to schedule less than a 2 day hearing due to “so much material”, so we waited 14 months for the court’s schedule to coincide with hers. She refused to consult prior to court or during recess, sitting in her car applying make-up for up to 40 minutes, stating “I’ll see you in the judge’s chambers; go on in” (despite charging for that time). During depositions, recess, etc., she incessantly texted and emailed someone other than me, the paying client. Multiple times she scheduled psychologists to testify, had me pay for prep time, issued subpoenas; then when they showed up, inform them she had everything she needed, they could leave. Once, she cancelled the psychologist the night before; I was stunned when he didn’t show, despite that I paid thousands for him to prepare and block out time. When I protested, she informed me that she had the right as my legal representation to act in my interest without my knowledge or approval.

Attorney Laura Keene did not familiarize herself with my case even though she demanded thousands of dollars of retainers every few months which I paid. After several months she threatened to drop me as a client knowing I was receiving no spousal support from my husband. She was assured payment at the... end of the divorce from the assets report, I requested she file for spousal support from day one but eight months passed by when her financial assistant told me to hit my friends up for the money! In court, I felt she was extremely unprepared confusing my paperwork with my husband's paperwork. She even dismissed witnesses without consulting me first. I had no knowledge of their release until she called the case to an end. I was very unhappy with her poor performance and did not feel she represented my best interests! She was not readily available to meet with in person as I had to go through secretary's and her personal assistant. I would strongly advise others to pass her by.