Howard Shapiro

I hired this attorney to get custody back from my ex-wife and he did that for me. I had no real grounds to do it but Howard seems to get what he asks for due to his connections and the judge didn't even listen to my ex's lawyer and in fact screamed at him in the court room to sit down. Now I don't ha...ve to pay child support from my six figure income to my ex wife and she has to pay me even though she hardly has any money at all. I was fortunate to take away many of her rights as well, so I feel fortunate that I hired the right attorney. I would definitely hire him again for the same case.

This was 6 years ago, but I must write a review so that other people won't fall to be their victim. I was referred to Howard Shapiro 6 years ago for a divorce case. 1. He was supposed to appear in court. However, 2 hours before the set time, he called me and said he had to leave town for his vacati...on. So I was left in a limb and not being able to get anything done. 2. He charged me $7,500 retainer fee without doing anything. Absolutely nothing! I drafted all the details and numbers on division of assets/property. 3. They never briefed me about decree and never told me that I could request for child support increase. 4. Their response time is VERY SLOW! 5. Their attitude is rather arrogant and rude, not cordial. 6. Because they didn't do anything about my case, I was at great disadvantage compared to my ex in the decree document, after divorce, and still to this day. I would definitely NOT recommend him nor his office.

The worst customer service experience imaginable! Stay away from this law firm at all costs! If you want to pay twice the market rate for an attorney, only to get frustrated and have serious buyer's remorse, this is the guy for you. I retained Mr. Shapiro for a custody modification case, a fai...rly simple case as the child's father no longer wanted custody of my son. Thus, the only matters related to child support and health care for the father's two children. Such a relatively straightforward matter has taken nearly one year to resolve, with no end in sight. I warned the attorney up front the child's father was a seriously dishonest person and that you'd have to keep after him to make any progress, but my advice was summarily dismissed. The serious lack of responsiveness of the attorney and particularly his assistant was the main reason the calendar time is so substantial. This is an attorney who will not communicate with clients! During the court date, 30 minutes before we were scheduled to go into the court room, I found Mr. Shapiro sitting outside of the courtroom asking his assistant, OK what do we have here today? Based on the billing records, it became evident he had hot reviewed the facts of the case during the two months prior to going to the courthouse and his performance in the courtroom made his lack of preparation very evident. The child's father was lying on the stand which was fairly evident to this casual observer, but the attorney made no attempt to put his feet to the fire on these issues, but rather proceeded to the next question. A sharp attorney would have completely uncovered these lies withiin the courtroom. When I brought the customer service lapses to the attorney's attention, he became very defensive and blamed the problem on the speed of the legal system, conveniently forgetting his assistant took six weeks to draft a simple seven page document for filing with the court. Similarly, to go from the Rule 11 Agreement to the filing of the temporary order took more than four months, a complete embarrassment for an attorney who bragged during our first meeting that he was the best. Far from it, as we have learned. This is clearly an attorney who is living off of his past reputation and is not worth the time and effort to retain.