Michelle Renee Penna

I hired Michelle during one of the most vulnerable and traumatic times of mine and my children’s lives. She made big promises, didn’t deliver, and drug things out for billable hours, while she knew my kids were going through hell when with their dad. I was never in the courtroom with her, always made... to wait outside of it. I remember one court date, where I became very frustrated as the court was once AGAIN postponed, and she turned around, away from me, and said to her associate, “She’s so I unappreciative”, referring to me. Very unprofessional at times. I finally had to fire her and retained another lawyer who had my children’s best interest at heart and got results and resolution, and always had me in the courtroom with him. If you can, try to work things out in your marriage. If you can’t, try to keep it out of the courts, and work out an agreement that’s good for the kids.

Being a business owner, I typically only leave reviews for one of two reasons; Either what I experienced was above average, exceeded expectations, & the business deserves the shout out. Secondary, as a forewarning to others the business was such a letdown & did so horribly, avoid wasting your money. ...Unfortunately, my experience with Michelle & her firm was the latter. Custody is never easy and conflict was high with my case as I was barely able to see my kids for almost 2 months. I reached out to Penna Coker Law & spoke with Michelle, once & only once with an initial free consultation. After listening to my case, she provided pieces of an aggressive game plan & some guidance that gave me hope. I retained Michelle's firm & she assured me along with her team, she would be there to continue providing legal guidance. She couldn't have been more wrong. I spent the next 3 weeks with unanswered questions, confused, afraid, & completely left in the dark without a single word from Michelle until I terminated her firm. Things started off rocky with over 20 misspellings on the initial filing, including several of my son's name which would be correct on one line, incorrect on another, correct, then incorrect. Other misspellings included commonly used words or incorrect grammar. If you're going to charge $350/hr for a paralegal's work, at least have them run spell-check. Even Windows 98 had spell check... After that, they filed a document I never saw until after they filed with court & misspelled CALLIFORNIA. The state they're practicing law in. I emailed my attorney directly 6 times & called 6 times requesting to speak with Michelle over a 3 week period. I always got the same excuses of why she wasn't available & after taking my money, Michelle didn't see my case fit enough to take even one more second of her time on me. Michelle was so uninvolved & out of the loop, in one of her final emails to me she made several references to my "child". I have two children Michelle. After being fired, Michelle was so kind as to take the liberty of filling in my new attorney, then bill me for her time. Neither my new attorney nor I requested Michelle to inform my new counsel how to do their job. $4,500 initial retainer, then Michelle informed me "there was so much work done on my case" & then I got another $3k bill a month later. I just hit the same total amount with my current attorney after 7 weeks, who also got me custody orders & overnight alternate weekends with my kids after 11 days. Michelle advised me to file an aggressive restraining order, then admitted to me in an email (after termination) that evidence wasn't concrete enough. Had I pursued what Michelle advised with fantastic odds of losing, I was potentially liable to pay the opposing side's legal fees if I hadn't decided to drop the case. If you're looking for help with your family law case, I would recommend any firm but this one.

Michelle Penna and her staff all worked very hard to help resolve my issues. When looking for an attorney, you want to find one that will be fair and is capable of providing you with accurate information. Michelle and her staff will go above and beyond to help you find a fair resolution. If you want ...an attorney that has no heart and will just crush the other party then don't go to her. If you want someone that will help you through a tough situation and do everything possible to provide a very fair result, then Michelle Penna is who you want to hire. As angry as we can be with our former partners, at one point we loved them. It can be difficult to remember that, especially in the heat of battle. For me, the most important thing was getting though my custody situation with a fair outcome. Michelle made that possible for me! Now me and my ex both feel good about the situation and are able to communicate well again and work together on matters regarding our daughter. Everyone's situation is different, and it wasn't an easy road getting to this point. It took us over a year to get to where we are today. On the other hand, I have recommended people to Michelle that were able to resolve their issues in a matter of weeks. I would recommend Michelle and her staff to absolutely anyone I know. Thank you very much Michelle, for everything you did for us!

Family law is a no win for everyone except the attorneys. With so many clients it has to be impossible to get to know what they are dealing with specifically. We went pro per for the single reason this attorney told us a reunification request from opposing counsel was "not unethical". Ms. Penna, ...please note that we watched our child breakdown and suffer years of traumatic nightmares at the thought of being reunited with the "ethical" parent. If you took the time to research the therapy notes you'd see that supporting us in our fight to stand up and protect our child for her best interests maybe you'd still be our attorney. Not every case is textbook. $2500 for nothing, absolutely nothing.