Melissa Kelly Schroeder

Melissa is the best! She knows the law and procedures so well that she has consistently come up with great, effective options/assets/cards to play at every turn, more than any other attorney I've even heard of. But more than that, she is discerning. She looks before she leaps. She will analyze ...a situation closely and with patience, noting its idiosyncrasies before jumping to rash actions. She has kept me from doing things that might have won a battle but very possibly lost the war multiple times. She won't make you look flaky by trying far-fetched or thinly-rooted strategies and just hoping the court will buy it (or that the other side will be cowed into relenting), the way some attorneys do. When she makes a move, it is on solid ground. I guess I should also say that Melissa's first and favored option seems to be to cooperate with the other side and come up with a mutually acceptable agreement at the least possible expense and with the least possible destructive battling - which is admirable and of course desirable. My situation didn't offer that option, but she did try that avenue first and give it more than a couple of chances to take hold. Melissa was my 3rd attorney on my initial case - in which I was in bad, bad shape - and she turned the whole thing around to a point that the ultimate judgment gave me even more than I was asking. The other side appealed, and Melissa defeated that very quickly and decisively. The other side came at us again with another case, and Melissa handled that wonderfully too. In the end, the other side settled with an agreement that was even more solid legally than our initial situation, and was on better terms than I probably should have even hoped for when it started. Melissa is the best!!

I waited a long time to post reviews as I wanted to think about feedback and be fair. I think Melissa is a decent attorney with a good legal skillset but I think she has too many clients and/or I was just another matter. I hired Melissa for my Divorce matter as a family recommendation, at first she w...as very helpful before I was a client but after I was a client was a different story. Given I had made some personal errors during the time of the matter but I at no time had no idea what her legal strategy was, I just saw that after a couple months, her and her paralegals had burned through the retainer extremely fast with really no results, no communication on what was going on, when I emailed questions I was charged left and right in some cases 15min for an email that took 5 min to write. I still have no idea what was discussed with opposing counsel, I've only heard bits and pieces from my ex. I nearly lost my job in this matter due to covid and work from home and a home I was not allowed in and nobody cared in the matter. In the end, I had to negotiate the settlement myself with my ex. When I sent it to Melissa she emailed opposing council to say "our clients have gone rogue" after the holidays I didn't have much more money left, I paid her $500 to just read and review the agreement, she didn't communicate back with me, 2 weeks later when I followed up she demanded I pay 2k more on the retainer, I borrowed that and I'm really not sure where that retainer went, she did make some edit to the agreement but also put that it was against her recommendation on the agreement and I assumed that was that, then she still sent me a bill for $1400 more. Her office made an error on the child support worksheet, to her credit when this was brought up she did make a phone call to the trustee. This was a terrible time in my life and I feel my trust was misplaced and used as a money making opportunity, I was a matter and nothing more. I feel Melissa may be better suited in a Firm instead of a sole attorney in a practice

She promised moon , stars doing intake. Took a month to send the first email. Burnt most of my retainer to get everything opposing legal counsel wanted, through her robotic paralegals. then withdrawn citing health or mother surgery , some such reason. She did zero defense, when there were false ac...cusations. I would rather plead my spouse, to reconcile than working with these hypocrites. Stay away.

Very disappointed with her representation. Basically got billed for many hours with nothing to show for it. Many times tried to drop off paperwork and the office was closed and locked in the middle of the day. To this day, the paperwork I dropped off I never received back after I found new represe...ntation. Looking through my billing statement was actually funny because hours were charged for services I never received. Highly suggest looking a different direction with your hard earned money. I'm out thousands of dollars with literally nothing to show for it.