Neal Adam Simon

Neal was excellent to work with in resolving my divorce after being married for many years. Neal's legal expertise, combined with his empathy and compassion for all involved, makes Neal somebody you want on your team. While keeping his client's interests at the forefront, he is always focused on p...ractical as well as legal solutions to resolve issues and move efficiently to the conclusion of what is almost always a very stressful, complicated and emotional process. While one would hope not to be a repeat client of any family law attorney, Neal was the first person I called prior to getting remarried to draft our pre-marital agreement.

I would have never anticipated it taking so long but it did and Neal was a big help through the process. To say the least I was frustrated and swayed by emotions and Neal did a fine job of keeping things on task, keeping an eye on the end goals, and moving things along. There were many times when c...ompromise was not at all what I wanted but with emotions removed from the equation, Neal was able to rationalize the need for compromise and making progress. The other attorney, Beth, was a far different personality that in our one face-to-face meeting behaved like Donald Trump during a debate, in the most condescending fashion and it frustrated or infuriated me. To Neal's credit he remained far more calm and unwavering and in the end benefited from her reckless behavior. The process is costly, although when I compare it to what I've heard others paying, either Neal was very fair or my divorce actually went quite smoothly. My guess it is more the former. I have never been through a divorce, wish I never had, and hope I never have a repeat of this ridiculous legal process. There are so many unknowns for the novice, and Neal did a nice job of explaining things and not making me feel foolish for not understanding. No relationship is all good. If I have any negative comment, and I don't know how much is in Neal's control, is that the turn around time for drafts is very long. There are numerous people who are needing to interact and offer opinions, and everyone of us has a busy life. Even if I diligently responded in 24 hours, we might not have our finalized draft make to the opposing side for several weeks. That may sound terrible, but typically it was about half the time that it took to hear back from the other side. So in comparison, our response time was efficient. I did see in real time how and why this delay can take place. On the day of our appearance in court, Neal was tied up with my needs from easily 8:00 through possibly 3:00, if yo consider drive time, and I am sure there is some downloading of information that must still be done once back in the office, besides tracking billable hours. In the end, on that given day, Neal got virtually nothing accomplished for his other clients, and I am sure it is unlikely that his phone didn't ring, or emails didn't arrive, while he attended to my business. I will take away two pieces of advice from Neal over the past three years. First, don't let the perfect get in the way of the good. Having our own agreement completed outside of court and not leaving it in the hands of a judge was vital to my outcome. Every now and then I needed to be reminded that neither of us was going to get the resolution to be perfect in our own mind, but getting a good result could be seen as a "victory". The other advice is that even if you didn't write your own prenuptial agreement, you have one - the one the State of Illinois wrote on your behalf, and frankly it sucks. If you, your son or daughter, a good friend, even a not so good friend is going to get married, advise them to write your own prenuptial agreement. Create fair terms for dealing with each other while you like and even love each other. Put in penalty clauses for infidelity or other transgressions. When the day comes that your world is torn apart and you are required to treat the guilty party fairly, like nothing ever happened and no one was harmed or hurt, it just causes that pain to burn even more deeply. A "good" divorce won't make everything fine, but it might eliminate feeling like you just got screwed again. Neal was a good choice for me. My sense is he will be a good choice for you.