Debra R Schoenberg

I found Deborah through a lawyer friend who is an estate planning attorney, and has a great deal of experience working with family law firms. She gave me the names of several family law firms, but once I met Deborah, I knew this was the place to be at this very difficult time of my life. At my first... meeting with Deborah, I knew that she would protect my interests. It was obvious to me that she was not to be trifled with, and in fact, I would not have wanted to encounter her on the other side of my divorce. Rachel Leff-Kiff did much of the day to day work under Deborah's supervision. Rachel was extremely competent, calm and patient. Throughout, I was kept informed, my phone calls were returned promptly, and at each stage of the proceedings I was given options and the advise necessary to make the best decisions for my benefit. Deborah and her team were always very respectful and mindful of my financial situation and handled my divorce in a cost effective and caring manner. Deborah and Rachel did everything possible, and succeeded in fostering an uncontentious, amicable environment at the least possible expense, while absolutely protecting my interests. The staff was helpful, welcoming and uniformly kind both in person and on the phone. This made a big difference at a time when I was undergoing a lot of stress. I feel profoundly grateful for the way I was treated and my marriage resolved. As I move forward with my new life I would wish that anyone who is going through a divorce have as good an experience as I have. I would recommend the Schoenberg Family Law Group to anyone who is going through a divorce.

If you are reading this and have the same overwhelming fears, doubts, etc as I did let me share this. As I sat, arrived early, waiting for my appointment I noticed how "Polite" the staff were and thought as I saw the look on others going thru this process, these feelings falls between Death and Taxes... so much sadness to be death with. I was very, pleasantly, surprised how comfortable I felt dealing with Ms. Schoenberg. She not only was "clear and honest" yet also respectful of my needs. She at 1st asked if my situation could be handled with arbitration to save cost and then after hearing my specifics suggested and gave a few names of excellent arbitration folks. I do wish you to have the same experience in this difficult time and if you talk with Ms. Schoenberg I believe it would be the lest difficult it might be. Should my situation go down hill I will use Ms. Schoenberg to handle all the rest of the legal needs!

Please do not hire this law firm. My late fiancé and I hired this firm to Set Aside his divorce in CA and to keep his son but ended up losing both. The firm was expensive and sloppy. We started with Debra, transferred to Joanne funke then Eric Glasser, each time we had to repeat the process of explai...ning our situation and providing numerous documents over again. A complete waste of money and time. Finally, despite the fact that I reminded Eric to File the Motion to Set Aside Judgement 13 times, he refused and we missed our Statute of Limitations and ultimately lost case because of it. When we finally went to trial with a different law firm, the judge agreed we had a solid case but could not hear our argument because Schoenberg, the first law firm we hired, did not file the motion to set aside judgement for us and we missed our statute of limitation.

While I believe Ms. Schoenberg herself is a gifted attorney and salesperson, I found her staff to be less so. Here's a specific example of why you may be better served by another firm. This is one of many, many examples of the firm's extraordinary billing practices. Tip of the billing iceberg. M...y response was filed via fax, was filed incorrectly by the staff at Schoenberg, and consequently rejected by the court. Here are the billing entries I received, for the fax filing itself. The entries aren't for the content of the filing, but just the admin of getting it to the court. I was charged for the work even when the work wasn't done correctly, and ultimately the fax wasn't accepted. The work was done by a paralegal, who charged $295 per hour. The work was spread out over four days, and billed in increments of .1 hour. 1. emails to and from admin staff regarding fax filing 2. email to [XX] regarding fax filing 3. emails to and from [XX] regarding the same 4. draft Fax Filing Form 5. prepare Proof of Service (for fax filing) 6. email to [XX] regarding fax filing Proof of Service's to Alameda Court 7. draft additional fax filing form 8. Email from [XX] regarding fax filing confirmation 9. fax filing proof to client file 10. (2) emails to Court regarding fax filing from last week and serving courtesy copies of supplemental declaration 11. Call to Swift Attorney Service regarding status of court filing (x2) 12. call to Alameda fax file contact line (x3), 13. emails to and from [XX] regarding the same 14. emails to and from [XX] regarding Register of Actions 15. Email from [XX] regarding emailing department regarding fax filed responsive declaration not showing on Register of Actions 16. email to [XX] regarding forwarding email sent to department on x/xx To no one's surprise, the retainer was exhausted quickly. You will get better representation for your money elsewhere.