Brian Jude Mcnamara

I put a lot of thought into this and there are ZERO hard feelings here. It's been months since the decree was signed, so this is not written in haste or emotion. It is to hopefully help another parent out there in a similar situation to choose better than I did. My rating is reflective of my very... particular highly contentious divorce with a very difficult person that I did not initiate, so defensive position with a super unreasonable person kicking off the whole mess. Long story short: I like Brian and his office as people but if you are a dad who has been ambushed with a totally unnecessary divorce by a totally uncompromising narcissist hell bent on destroying you or at least fleecing you with zero regard for the children except to use them as leverage don't hire these guys. To Brian's credit I was told a custody case without any real obvious disqualifiers was going to be like 50-75 THOUSAND dollars. And me, knowing nothing about any of this willing to do anything for my children said stay the course. So, that's on me but really my issue isn't with the cost. I'd give anything for my children, the issue I had is that the value didn't really match up with the cost. I want to be clear about this, I like Brian and I think he's a good honest guy but I think there are some inefficiencies that may make messier cases a challenge. He's a very skilled negotiator but when faced with a shark on the other side with a completely unreasonable person … you're gonna pay a lot to have a hard time. If you have a deal to work out or a contract to write brian can totally do that but if you need someone to be in your corner fighting tooth and nail to protect you and your children I strongly advise you to look elsewhere. One key moment in one mediation I was informed something that was very harmful to my plan when they had the data for a year before that. You'd think after tens of thousands of dollars people would know your case in and out and review all the stuff you send… but it didn't happen. I will put it this way. After tens of thousands of dollars, my keeping impeccable notes, giving them tons of data by the time trial date rolled around I had lost so much faith in Brian's willingness to go to the mat for me that I settled out of court. I know its one of those "any given sunday" kind of deals because judges basically ultimately go with their opinions as they interpret the law but that's why faith in your attorney is so important. If you want a shark, if you need someone who will cut no corners in the pursuit of exactly what you need and lose sleep over it because your family has been fed into the psychological-wood-chipper that is the divorce industry i strongly urge you to look elsewhere.

To begin, I feel I was misled during consultation. I was told that my case was not complicated and could probably be settled over the phone. My case was drug out for 9 months at $300 an hour for my attorney plus the cost of his paralegal and assistant. In my opinion my attorney was not adequately... prepared at mediation where opposing council was prepared. They had done their homework and ran circles around us. One thing this law firm was good at was charging for everything and anything they could think of without supplying sufficient explanation to what I was being charged for. My 9 month long experience at McNamara Law cost me $17,000 in legal fees and we ended up settling for 33,000 more than expected. Again, because we were not prepared and opposing counsel was. Another thing they do well at this law firm is collect your money. When your $5000 retainer is at the half way mark their pit bull accountant is quick to remind you payment is do. She is not a friendly person nor a pleasure to deal with. Lastly, my emails asking questions about my case were not always answered. These were important questions to me at the time and they were neglected. At $300 an hour I expect my emails to be answered. In summary, I would not recommend McNamara Law Office.