I found Jake on Avvo and hired him because he had many 5 star reviews. Jake told me that I would actually save money with a better, higher priced attorney. But this was not my experence with this firm. I was allowed to believe that I had a fighting chance at getting custody of my child for a y...ear when I never really did and I thnk they knew that from the start. Legal fees were costing me about $3000 a month. If I had been told my chances at getting custody were extremely low I may have negotiated out of court 6 months earlier and saved the cost of 6 months of discovery, phone calls, emails, and other recurring legal fees. I had prenuptial and post nuptial agreements signed in 7 places by my ex and myself, and notarized. Jake recommended filing a motion for summary judgment for the prenup. However, the motion was denied. The same prenup was ruled "valid on its face" by a judge in Dallas just 7 years before. So I feel the prenup should have been levereged more in this divorce, with the same spouse. 2 expensive passes at mediation were also fruitless. The IRA portion of the settlement should have been rolled into an IRA of my ex, kind for kind, to share the tax burden. I didn't think about this because I don't do divorces on a daily basis. But Jake should have thought of this in negotiations since he does. They estimated $30K for my divorce during the initial consultation, and came in around $40K, and that was without even going to trial. I waited a year to let the dust settle before writing this. If you're a hard working father with significant income I would not recommend this firm. You can get clipped by the law for less elsewhere. If you are the stay at home mom in this marriage then I think Jake can do much better for you. However, I can't blame Jake for all the losses in my case. Its the legal community as a whole that make the laws that benefit them the most. Marriage and divorce are a cash cow for the legal community. The reason child support is so high is because lawyers phones wouldn't be ringing if it were just a few hundred bucks. I think Jake should have explained to me early on how it works so we all could have saved some time, and the cost could have come in closer to budget.

My ex-husband hired this law firm and they are representing him. While others may have had positive experiences, my experience was frustrating. This law firm is representing my ex-husband who had an existing child support order but did not make payments, requiring me to pursue enforcement thr...ough the court. On the day of the hearing, just before the judge entered, my ex paid the full amount owed online through the OAG system. By that point, I had already incurred approximately $3,000 in legal fees to enforce a clear court-ordered obligation. Given that my ex paid child support minutes before the judge walked into the court room, she asked what the purpose of the hearing was and my ex- husband’s attorney said it was to discuss the legal fees associated with with the child support enforcement. If my ex would’ve paid child support, we wouldn’t have needed this hearing and thus a discussion over legal fees wouldn’t have been needed. It is disappointing that the matter was not resolved earlier by his attorney at this law firm as the hearing ultimately served NO purpose. From my perspective, the only party who appeared to benefit from this process was the law firm.

My experience with Jake Gilbreath was deeply terrible. From my perspective, Jake’s actions often seemed to prioritize personal interests over mine, his client, including making deals with opposing counsel without considering my best intentions. I found Jake to be unnecessarily hostile and unprofe...ssional to his own client, creating a toxic atmosphere that felt unstable and crazy. This behavior not only further undermined my trust but also ruined any chance of maintaining a civil relationship with my ex. If you are looking for a fair and amicable resolution to a legal divorce, I would consider other options. If you are seeking a more aggressive approach, it’s important to find a lawyer you can trust to truly prioritize your best interests.

I reached out to Jake and his firm to help with a case that had already been badly damaged. At our first meeting he told me he was familiar with the ruling in my case already and expressed certain opinions about the case and the presiding judge that I'll exclude from this review for his benefit. Sadl...y, months after hiring him on as my attorney to handle a straight-forward asset division issue, I couldn't quite figure out why we were not getting anywhere with our discussions and why he was not fighting harder on my behalf. Unfortunately, I realized too late that he should have disclosed his personal and professional ties with opposing counsel, which creates a clear conflict of interest. His wife, whom elevated quickly from paralegal to COO of his firm, sits on a board with opposing counsel and her husband. Imagine the despair of finding out that someone with an ethical responsibility to best represent their client shoved that aside to keep things running smooth for their own career and personal relationships. Participation in a charitable organization can be a good thing AS LONG AS it does not cause a lack of communication and misrepresentation on part of the attorney. I am truly disappointed in Jake's unprofessional behavior, dishonesty, and his continued denial to take responsibility for his actions. I thought he might use this opportunity to apologize or show remorse for his poor behavior, but in the end he chose to brag about charity work and name drop. For the record, “we” did not choose to end the attorney-client relationship, I did.

I searched probably a 100 different lawyers and read Jakes profile and talk to him. I was sure he was the lawyer for me I even paid the top tier price. just to find out halfway through divorce you was not my lead lawyer, and probably wouldn't have hired the other lawyer. But they told me the noon whe...re you had enough money in my retainer to finish the case .Jake I would have to come up with a lot more, so i had no choice, will almost at the end they decided to withdrew ,and would not even talk to me me why , I'm still not quite sure why but it's been about a year and I finally had to take whatever my wife and her attorney decided to give me because i could not afford a nother attorney. so here I am looking for a lawyer to appeal .i hade to take settlement do you have money for another lawyer. And loosing everything. Former client Darren