Swati Sumit Desai

Swati was the second lawyer I hired after a five year ongoing divorce case. The first firm I hired was terrible and I'll just leave it at that. After an initial bad experience with the family law world, I decided to do my due diligence before hiring another lawyer, plus, I was doing pretty bad financ...ially and couldn't really afford to hire any firm. Luckily, my ex-wife's situation wasn't amazing either and she had to drop her lawyer as well due to financial reasons, which resulted in both of us continuing our case pro-per. This led me to a two and a half year long journey where I had contacted dozens and dozens of family law firms and lawyers, getting as much free advise as I could and occasionally paying for an hour or two of consultation whenever I could afford it. In the process, I become very familiar with different lawyers all the way from the Valley down to Orange County. I talked and met with any type of lawyer you could imagine, from highly experience competent ones, to complete amateurs that were just trying to make a quick buck. I contacted Swati's firm about a year into my search and received a great consultation from one of her lawyers, but unfortunately didn't have the funds to hire them at the time. Fast forward to a year and a half later, my case was on track to go to trial and my ex-wife got herself a new lawyer and so I found myself borrowing money and saving any penny I had, so I could hire one as well. I contacted Swati's office again and unfortunately, they were not available to take my case. After some convincing and Swati's calendar becoming clearer, she was able to accept my case. Best course of events in my six year case (not a typo). We had a hearing coming up about a week after I had hired her. Swati prepared and showed up to the hearing with as much preparation she could have had in that short amount of time (my case was very complicated with many moving parts) and against my expectations, delivered a flawless representation of my position and showed the other side (that until that day in court wasn't aware that I had hired a lawyer) that they are going to have an extremely difficult time litigating this case. My case was set for trial, and we ended up settling before then and against all odds (I forgot to mention that my ex-wife received a pro-bono lawyer which meant she had zero overhead going to trial and a law incentive to settle as a result). Swati and her team were extremely competent, savvy, knowledgeable and most importantly - honest and caring. I even asked Swati during one of our meetings, a couple of weeks before the commendatory settlement hearing was held, what would her incentive be to settle my case versus going to trial which will result in hundreds of billable hours for her. She explained that what I described isn't rare in the family law industry and that in fact, in some conferences they teach lawyers how to deploy billing strategies like the one I was worried about, but that she is not the person to take advantage of her clients and will always push for the client to spend the lease amount they need on their legal defense. Even after explaining that, I was still skeptical. However, Swati came through with her promise and her and her team pushed to settle my case and got me a great outcome, ended saving me a lot of time and money and made me believe that despite what I largely came across in the field, that even though rare, there are still lawyers that are competent, professional, honest and caring out there. Can't recommend her enough.

Swati... Hard for me to explain my gratitude towards you. I would not know my sons the way I do today if it were not for you. Brings tears to my eyes even writing this... You were so calculated, calm and supportive. My sons and I owe our relationship to you and the work you put in for us. You a...re a wonderful person. Thank you so much!

If you do decide to use Desai Family Law as your counsel, do NOT have Malori handle any of your documents or case. She is careless with her work and not detailed oriented. I should have known this in the beginning, when she had emailed me requesting my signed retainer agreement. I notified her tha...t the signed agreement was faxed couple days prior, then receive an email stating she had found my signed retainer agreement. This is not a big issue and a simple mistake that is understandable. However, during the negotiations of my case, I had instructed Malori to change my custody schedule to the Settlement Proposal Letter. I, of course, wanted more time with my child and attached a picture of the changes I was requesting. I even told Malori to see the attached picture. Apparently, Malori did not see the attached picture and emailed me the Proposal several times without the changes I requested. I was also billed for the wasted time and work spent because of Malori's negligence. I eventually had to call Malori and tell her which email to open and what needed to be done. If you decide to use Desai Family Law Group, I would NOT recommend using Swati Desai. Any parent going through a custody case, goes through a lot of stress and needs an attorney to help them feel confident. I can honestly say, I did not feel confident having Swati represent me as my counsel, and I had to fire her 1 week prior to my court date. Several months prior to my court date during a phone call, Swati was aggressive with me on the phone and telling me my court date is coming up. I had to remind her that my court date was postponed and rescheduled to a later date by the courts. Her reply, "Hold on. Oh yeah, you're right". Also, during this conversation, Swati had given me incorrect legal advise. I questioned Swati's legal advice, so I emailed Malori if what Swati had said was correct. Malori's email contradicted Swati's legal advise; and in fact, Swati's legal advise was incorrect. During another important phone call, Swati proceeded to put me on hold twice. I was billed for the entire length of the phone call and her pricing is not cheap! One week prior to my court date during a phone call, Swati asked me "wait, when is your court date again"? Also during this phone call, I had asked Swati if she saw my important email from 2 days before. Her response, "What email? Oh yeah, that email. What was that email regarding again"? It was after this phone call, I decided to seek new counsel and fire Swati as my attorney. I understand that most attorneys do not memorize all their clients' court dates, but at least wait until the phone call is over and check your schedule for the court date. Do not ask your client, "wait, when is your court date again". (Take this as constructive criticism). The amount of stress and paranoia I endured having to fire Swati one week prior to my court date, I do not wish upon any parent. Shortly after replacing Swati, I was emailed a ridiculous bill. I tried to call Swati from my work phone to discuss the charges, only to realize that she had blocked that number. If Swati was familiar with my case/file she would have blocked the only number I had put on my contact information (which was my personal phone number). I called her from my personal number and she refused to discuss the charges. For the price they charge, I expected a certain level of professionalism and experience, which was not met. I would not recommend this firm and would suggest looking elsewhere.

We just concluded our 3 month long child custody case and couldn't of asked for better results. I am a father that just received full legal and physical custody. My case was extremely complicated with many different aspects however, Swati and her team, with dedication, took the time it needed. Our ca...se has been on going for 3 years in out of court when we decided to hire Swati with hopes to finally end the turmoil and she delivered! I would recommend her to anyone.

The hardest thing I have dealt with in my life is looking into the eyes of a planned child who has been abandoned by his biological father. The second hardest was having to exercise court intervention, after trying to avoid that route at all cost, because he resisted assuming the bare minimum respons...ibility of paying full child support for our child. Last month, after nearly a year and a half of hard work, stress, emotional trauma and a contentious fight to achieve the goals of security and justice for my son and me, I won a milestone judgment. Was awarded both the fair settlement we fought for, and the peace of mind we deserve. This would have been impossible without the expertise, understanding, kindness, quiet gravitas, diligence, patience, compassion and excellent counsel of Swati Desai, an exceptional family law attorney who was recommended by my company’s general counsel. What I appreciate most about Ms. Desai is that the only area of law she practices is Family Law, so you can feel confident you are getting an expert in the field. She is devoted to producing the highest caliber of legal work, and is guided by an uncompromising commitment to obtain peace of mind and justice for her clients. I recommend no one to help solve such important and personally crucial situations as the one I just faced, frivolously. But in this case, I do so profoundly, as Swati’s work was so extraordinary that I couldn’t think of a better way to express my deepest appreciation and gratitude than to recommend her services to my friends, colleagues and anyone who might at some point find themselves in similarly difficult situation with no clear path to resolution in dealing with a non-cooperative and contentious party.