Julia A. Perkins

Julia was referred to me during my divorce when the attorney I had been previously using did not have the skills needed to go against my ex's bulldog lawyer. She was not only extremely skilled, but she was kind and compassionate. She gently told me when I was being unreasonable and prepared me for ...what was to come during mediation. She "got me" and I feel like I not only had a skilled attorney, but a trusted friend on my side. She is extremely practical, down to earth, and knowledgeable. I would recommend her 1000%!

Absolutely horrendous representation. If you attempt to make a suggestion or workshop an idea, she accuses you of undermining her superior knowledge. As the client, she spent most of her time fighting for the viewpoint of the opposing side. She made the entire process so miserable, I actually cons...idered cancelling the divorce against my spouse. She permanently damaged the goodwill with the opposing council. Goodwill that was never recovered and the increased fighting just padded her invoices, $500 an hour. My spouse was paying the lawyers on both sides to fight each other due to Julia’s behavior. Behavior that seemed purposefully designed to increase the cost of the divorce. Julia made several large mistakes and then, she began crossing the line with significant behavioral misconduct. I would have pursued the misconduct with the state but I wanted to distance myself from her as quickly as possible. I finally cut bait after I recognized I was paying $500/hour to be abused and undermined by my own lawyer. Her replacement achieved the final outcome that I was initially seeking and, the outcome Julia said was impossible. So not only was she insufferable to work with, she was also, wrong, wrong, wrong. I wasted too much time trying to get her to act as a lawyer for the Plaintiff. She never showed up so I had to sit her down.

Not happy at all. On 02/07/24 Met with Julia Perkins for a "consultation". We were asked to send in current custody/post divorce summary paperwork for review prior to this consultation. The consultation was not free, they charge a WHOPPING $510 per hour! We met with Julie for 90 minutes, and then ...she proceeded to say she needed to be paid for the ~30 minutes that their office took to review our paperwork. This was never disclosed and awkwardly put us on the spot. The consultation did not lead to us hiring her as she said the GAL on our case she was actually at ODDS with, and just tried to *unsuccessfully* remove her from a different case she had. It was a pure waste of $1,000+ and a real strong arm tactic to have us pay 2 hours instead of 1.5 hours. As if that wasn't bad enough, her parent company VARNUM, ran two charges on our credit card. One for the $1,020 that we reluctantly agreed to, AND they popped us with a 2nd charge of 3% credit card processing fee, that we never agreed to nor we were ever made aware of. We received their receipts on 03/15/24 and contacted her office on 03/22/24 and asked for this erroneous charge to be removed. On 03/23/24 we received a direct response from Julia with her assistant cc'd stating that they would send us a check back as a refund. As of 04/12/24 we had not received the promised refund and sent an email back to Julia as well as a cc to her assistant. Both chose to not respond. As of 05/09/24, we have now had to take the time to proceed with a credit card dispute, because they can't be bothered to refund they extra charge they did. In general, the meeting was par at best. It seemed like Julia wanted to make arguments on behalf of the Ex, and we didn't clique well with her. With other competent attorneys that we've dealt with that at the high end are ranged from $275-400 per hour, I have no idea how she or Varnum keeps clients. There was no sort of wow factor that showed us we'd be getting any bang for our buck. Sadly, I would not recommend.

Spent a few years roughly in my custody case she was supportive but forward with me she faced a ton of pressure from outside sources but still did what was right i could not be anymore grateful for her i now consider her and Salvatore vitale friends thanks to them im able to be a father money well sp...ent!

I was very fortunate to be referred to Julia at the worst time in my life. My divorce was unexpected and very painful. Julia and her staff eased my pain immediately. My ex and her attorney had falsely accused me and attacked me legally from every angle which completely overwhelmed my previous lawy...er ( I had hired that one based on a radio advertisement thinking they would represent my rights as a father. Boy was I wrong!) Julia was open and honest from the start and was clear in what needed to be done. My ex and opposing counsel had struck first putting me in a hole, but once I hired Julia, she stepped in and countered aggressively without missing a step. I knew immediately I had made the right choice. My case was difficult because my ex had more resources and no scruples, but Julia knew how to handle cases like this correctly. She guided me perfectly, both legally and personally, so I would not accidentally do anything that would jeopardize my case. She always listened to me, responded very quickly, and provided sound advice for handling anything from simple disagreements between my ex to dealing with custody and financial issues. And if you're one of the unfortunate 1% that has to actually go to trial like I had too, then you are going to want Julia on her side. She's was simply amazing at every hearing and trial date. She's very gifted in the courtroom. She was so much better than my ex's attorney, that my ex literally fired hers a day after one of our hearings. Julia was more prepared on the facts and strategy of my case, more versed in the law, and more prepared regarding what opposing counsel would do. The result of having Julia as my attorney was that I got the custody and settlement I wanted. I don't even want to think of how things would have ended up if it wasn't for her, her team, and her firm. I wholeheartedly recommend Julia and her staff to anyone going through a divorce or custody case.