Brian L Sobol

Brian was the 2nd lawyer I had in a high-conflict child custody case. i was frustrated that my 1st lawyer seemed to barely know the case after > 1 yr and dragged things out w/ repeated hearings requested by the other side in which my case lost ground w/ every hearing (mostly because my lawyer knew n...ext to nothing about my case and just went along w/ everything). Especially compared to my 1st lawyer, Brian listened to me and helped me submit an affidavit and request for hearing that finally got the case moving forward. He took time to read it over/edit/make suggestions and do his own additional research on the issues I brought up. Brian knew the details of my case very quickly after taking me on as a client. He took the time to talk to other family law attys re their experience w/ some of the some odd particulars of my case and shared the info he gathered w/ me. He passionately argued my points in court hearing and had crafted a very detailed template for custody agreement, which he worked with me to adjust to the issues in my case. I found it very convenient that Brian likes email and, eg, we could go back and forth editing the proposed custody agreement via email. I learned going through this that courts really do NOT want to make a ruling or go to trial on child custody. Courts push the parents to come to an agreement likely because it is more apt to "stick". The judge was very impressed with Brian's custody agreement template and asked him for a copy of the template version of it (ie not the version particular to my case) to use in other cases. I should mention that "template" is probably an understatement - it was very detailed and covered things that I hadn't thought of. It's an unfortunate fact that most of the time neither side is going to be 100% happy w/ the outcome of these cases. I wasn't, but I felt in the end that my children had a doable outcome and their interests and welfare were well protected. The only negative I could say about my experience with Brian was that an issue came up several months after our case was settled and my file had been moved to off-site storage. I was charged for them to try to locate it and get it back. But overall, I did not feel like every time a piece of mail went through Brian's or his assts' hands, I was charged. He was very efficient and I felt like I got what I paid for (w/ the exception of the file location). The reason I gave him a few "4"s instead of "5"s is because he had a lot of cases and I would have to sometimes try several times to contact him. But unlike my previous lawyer, I wasn't charged every time I simply called and asked to speak to Brian. Overall, he was responsive and efficient. I would recommend Brian to a friend who had the misfortune of going through a child custody case.