Kyle Austin Coker

I hired Mr. Coker in December 2025 for a business litigation matter after being connected through a mutual friend. I signed an engagement letter and wired a $10,000 retainer. Since this was my first time doing litigation, I asked for weekly updates on spending. His office assured me they "seek to be ...upfront about the cost to avoid any issues." Instead of working with Mr. Coker directly, I was assigned to another attorney at the firm without being told until our first call. After that attorney billed over $4,800 in hours (including time supposedly reviewing my case materials but not knowing basic details like the opposing party's name) the conclusion was that my case needed to be filed in another state via pro hac vice. The out-of-state attorney they connected me with wanted an additional $20,000 retainer, and I was told to keep both firms on retainer with Mr. Coker's firm acting as "quarterback" for strategy. I decided to let the matter go and asked to close the engagement on February 24th. What followed was five weeks of the most frustrating back-and-forth I've ever experienced. Mr. Coker's assistant scheduled a call for him, but he didn't show. The assistant apologized for a "calendaring error," rescheduled to 3 PM the next day, then changed it to 4 PM. When Mr. Coker finally got on the phone, he said he'd "personally take care" of getting my retainer back. Three weeks of silence later, I followed up again. I still had never received any accounting of what had been billed — not the weekly updates I'd asked for, not monthly invoices, nothing. Over the next week I had roughly a dozen exchanges with his office where they asked me to confirm my mailing address three separate times (they had it when I signed the engagement letter), promised twice to send the invoice "tomorrow," and then inexplicably scheduled another call with Mr. Coker which got canceled and had to be rescheduled again. When we finally had that call, Mr. Coker thought I had requested it (I hadn't, I'd been asking his office to just email me the invoice and my money). He seemed surprised I still didn't have the invoice and sent me a "draft" for the first time, showing $6,382.50 billed against my $10,000. I got back $3,617.50 and spent six grand to basically be told I should've hired a firm in another state. I would not recommend this firm to anyone who values communication or responsiveness. I got the sense they had a lot going on and this was a small matter to them, but I would have preferred they just say that upfront so I could find someone who had the bandwidth.