Kelly Koch

First, I was referred to Kelly from several friends for my divorce, so I set up a consult meeting. Unfortunately, an emergency arose and Kelly was unavailable, so I spoke with Lorraine. I was so impressed with Kelly's assistant, Lorraine, I decided to retain Kelly as my divorce lawyer. I know that ...all divorces are difficult, mine was no different. It included adultery, both sex and alcohol addiction, plus bankruptcy. I was so distraught from all the lies and betrayal, I left my beloved Texas and moved to be near family in another state. I was concerned how my move would effect my divorce, but was confident that my decision to hire Kelly was a solid decision and all would work out. All aspects of my divorce were handled via phone, fax, or email. It was truly amazing. Even now, my divorce being settled and over, I have never met Kelly in person. It never mattered. She and her staff were right with me the whole time. I truly appreciate all their efforts and personal hand holding to get me through this terrible time in my life. If you are considering a family lawyer, please contact them.

My experience with Kelly and her staff has been excellent. My calls and emails are answered and returned promptly keeping me informed of issues and solutions with my case. Kelly is accessible, even when I walked in without an appointment she took the time to answer my questions and calm my apprehensi...veness with futurist happenings. She is focused on the facts and legal aspects of the case. I am very happy I was referred to her to represent me.

I scheduled a consultation with Kelly and was met with the most disrespectful person I've possibly ever encountered. I should have walked away immediately when she said, "I'm not willing to fight a case that I know you're going to lose." She didn't want to hear any reasoning or background informa...tion on why I was presenting certain things. She also told me that I need to go to therapy to learn how to stand up to my ex. I could hardly explain myself and my thoughts fully because this woman was coming at me as if I wasn't the one trying to pay her thousands of dollars. She told me that I was trying to be just as controlling as my son's dad when my only concern was with his safety. I didn't realize that wanting my child to be in a safe environment was controlling. She argued with me about things I had said when she had obviously misunderstood because she would not let me explain anything. In order to cover herself for the terrible service she provided, she had me speak to her receptionist/paralegal? I'm not sure of her exact job title, but she isn't the apparent "highest rated attorney" that I paid to speak to. "To make sure I get my moneys worth" is what she claimed. I should have gotten my $350 back and walked away immediately.

I relied on reviews to find Kelly's law firm, and I was very disappointed in the consult process. I sent in background information, including the office's forms as they requested, along with my own questions. While I understand the firm has many clients, when it was time for my consult, I had to forw...ard the email with the information I had already sent into the office and Kelly read it while we were on the phone; the meeting cost $280 and lasted barely 25 minutes. I asked if I could retain her for questions, and we went over that payment was $350/hr and charged by the half-hour. I agreed and said that was fine. After the consult, I followed up by email and then she said the retainer was $4,000 and we could not do question-by-question advice. I said that was fine and must have misunderstood, and confirmed I wanted representation. A week later she said it was $5,000 and had mistyped, which I also didn't mind, but she also wanted to confirm I had jurisdiction. I had in fact confirmed this in our consult, as well as in the paperwork, and establishing jurisdiction was the first thing we went over. I asked three questions after this that I hoped to understand from the consult and wanted to understand generally before full payment of the retainer, and then she said the consult was for general information about family laws and not case-specific. She then said she was too busy to take on a question-only client. I said again that I had wanted representation but understood she would not be taking me on as a client. However, I was overall very disappointed in the lack of preparation shown and lack of attention to detail. I also understood the consult was not to say what would happen exactly to me, but I was trying to understand the process and how having a lawyer might actually help in a 50/50 state. This was quite a bit of money to spend on a meeting that was not prepared for, and that resulted in a lack of answers, and then dismissal when I asked follow-up questions that were original to the consult.

I hired Kelly based on reviews, talked to her on the phone several times, seems very interested, nice, helpful, told me all the things I needed to hear and was eager to help. Her communication was always fast, we pretty much had a standing phone time so that I could be kept up on my case. Then mediat...ion. Mediation was a total railroading, Kelly agreed with everything opposing counsel said, "that's a good deal", she didn't want to argue for anything on my behalf. I never felt represented, it was if there were 3 lawyers all against me, and I was paying for 2 of them, mine, and the mediator. Kelly told me during mediation that when this was over, she would be putting in a notice that she was no longer representing me. IN THE MIDDLE OF MEDIATION... in front of the mediator. Mediation took hours, nothing got settled. She quit on me, simply quit, I asked her to fight for me, and she quit. All in all, I paid Kelly about 15k and got nothing for it, I was her "morning coffee buddy" on her drive in to work.