Shelley A. Kester

You can do no better than with Shelley Kester. She was incredibly diligent, detailed, and her examination and cross examination was simply spot on. She was able to uncover the falsehoods and bring to light the truths. All of my ex-wifes "Witnesses" essentially ended up being my witnesses and stre...ngthening my case. This was all due to the incredible thoroughness of Ms. Kester and the way she builds her case to present to the Judge or Referee. Meticulous. Textbook. None of the witnesses could know where any line of questioning was going and so they all ended up being unprepared for what they were supposed to say and ended up speaking the truth about who I am as a dad. They ended up shoring up my position and revealing the twisting and manipulation of reality that had been going on while old friends were turned into people who now despised me. Above everything, Shelley Kester is about getting down to the truth. Backround: Our tale of family destruction is not new although it was a bit unilateral and was a surprise to everyone not know as my ex-wife. In the end people deserve to be happy in life and I don't find fault with wanting a new start. But such new starts are better when there is some level of discussion and things are less abrupt. Planning would have been better. Our court case however is a very challenging one and maybe a bit novel. My ex-wife and I had a signed and notarized agreement which allowed the kids(3) to decide where they wished to live. Our kids have always had a lot of autonomy and their own agency. Everything worked well throughout the first year after the divorce, but all of my kids were deciding to spend more time with me. I had always been the primary caretake since they were infants, and with my ex-wife primarily in charge post divorce, they simply were missing the day to day parenting I have always provided. My ex-wife simply has always had other priorities and that worked well when we were together. However, while I was recovering from the abrupt one-sided dissolution of our family, my ex-wife ended up with the most custody of our kids. As time went on my kids began to make choices about where they wished to live. First my eldest child decided to move where I was. But when the second child decided to move as well and the third was contemplating spending more time at my house, my ex-wife decided to shut that down and got an interim court decision blocking my kids from coming to freely stay with me as had been the previous understanding. They ended up being sequestered at her house the majority of the time with simple visitation 3 times a year. That is not what any of them wanted, especially after the lawsuit and initial decision was made, but they were stuck. Obviously, this began a year and 1/2 dispute as my ex-wife decided to drag things into the court rather than use the existing mechanism of arbitration provided by our signed agreement. So hell was unleashed unilaterally upon both sides of our family once more. And the lives of the kids became a purgatory of uncertainty and perpetual stress. Contrary to being a normal thing as my ex-wife framed the court case to our children, Court cases are a sign of gross dysfunction. Our case was incredibly destructive, hostile, and rampaged over both sides of our family mercilessly for a year and 1/2. So I needed an amazing lawyer and an amazing team. I was so so so lucky to have found Ms. Kester et. al. A competent legal team became like family for me. My case is extraordinarily different in the sense that I am a man who is fighting the mother of my kids for them to have more right to see me. But what makes the extra difficult is that I also live in an entirely different state. Yet even with such a normally heavy lift, we were able to prevail in the case. Truly, you can do no better to get at the truth and bring back balance in your family than by working with Ms. Kester and her team.

I originally had an attorney that was recommended by friends. i soon found myself lost in paper work and getting nowhere. Then i started doing a little research and found Shelley. She does a wonderful job and is 100% prepared for every step of the way before hand. I highly recommend her, she is ...honest, hard working and knows the law...

Hard to put this into a brief review. I have had a now 8 year battle with a narcissistic, manipulative abusive ex-husband. I initially hired Shelley to represent me for a post - divorce child custody trial. I hired her because I couldn’t take any chances when it came to the well-being of my childre...n and I knew of her reputation from the personal experiences of some of her prior clients who were my friends/acquaintances. Although I was generally happy with my prior attorney, I knew that Shelley specialized in family law, and felt that I needed the best representation that I could find- and that was what I got. After a successful custody trial she has continued to represent me through a multitude of court proceedings including personal protection orders, parenting time issues, passports, insurance disputes and on and on. At every turn she has been well-prepared, thorough and professional. She always took the time to understand the details of my case and represented my interests effectively. She holds herself to the highest standards of integrity and is well respected by the legal community. This has been a very financially costly road for me, but I will hire her again if I need to and wouldn’t trust anyone else to represent me. You definitely get what you pay for when it comes to legal representation.

I retained Shelley for what I thought would be an "easy" divorce process. It turned out to be a marathon of negotiations with a rigid ex-spouse that lasted for nearly 17-months. Shelley and her team treated me and my concerns like my own family. They listened, they advised and they cared throughou...t the entire process. I felt Shelley was knowledgeable in things that I didn't know to be concerned about and she covered those things with me in detail. She took the necessary time to make sure I understood each step of the process and I never felt rushed to understand or agree with her recommendations. She had a wonderful sense of humor at just the right times that alleviated "the elephant in the room" but also showed empathy and concern like it was her own. Thank you team Kester! Keep representing your clients with the same quality care!

I am an attorney who practices in the community with Ms. Kester, and I retained her to represent me in connection with a domestic matter. Shelley truly impressed me with her level of preparation, command of the facts and applicable law, and courtroom presence. I believe the favorable outcome in the... matter may not have been reached, were it not for her efforts. As both a client and fellow member of the bar, I am happy to recommend Shelley's services.