Denise J. Patton

Denise Patton

I am surprised and sorry to hear the negative comment above. I have been practicing in the area of adoption for law for 17 years and in the area of Assisted Reproductive Technology for over 10 years and together I have represented over 1,600 clients and never had such a complaint. Because I am bound by attorney-client privilege (a privilege which belongs to the client) I am unable to respond in detail regarding this particular situation. I can respond in general that whenever I am retained to draft and/or review a contract with a client it is ALWAYS my preference to go over the initial agreement in person with my clients. I appreciate that sometimes clients cannot or will not take off of work to meet with me in-person and/or that they may not wish to drive a long distance for a contract review and in these circumstances I do offer my clients the option to have a phone review. The choice about having a phone review or meeting in-person is always their choice. The vast majority of my clients choose to meet with me in person while we review the initial draft and then we go over subsequent changes over the phone, that being said, if a client indicated that they would like to meet again in-person I would NEVER have a problem with that. Unlike many other attorneys I do offer evening and weekend hours for the convenience of my clients but these appointments are over the phone. Regarding my fees, I am very upfront about my fees and pride myself on keeping my fees reasonable and very competitive. More specifically, my legal fee for drafting one Egg Donation Agreement Direct Agreement between the Intended Parents and a Donor is a flat $600.00 and my legal fee for reviewing an Egg Donation agreement between the Intended Parents and the agency is a flat $200.00. I am proud to say that my legal fees for Adoption are among the lowest in Illinois and are posted on my website.