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.

I was referred to Debra by a nonprofit group that helps women in abusive relationships like myself. They told me Debra wanted to help, so I called and set up a phone consultation with her assistant, letting her know I was being referred from Shalom Bayit because i wanted to try to divorce my abusive ...husband. It was a big, emotional, and scary step for me, but I was finally doing it. However, from the second Debra picked up the phone, she was so hostile and intimidating, I started crying. She interrupted me a few seconds into me explaining my situation and said she didn't care about any of that, she had a checklist she needed to get through. Then she barked orders at me like a drill sergeant. "WHEN did he last try to hit you?" "It was right after Thanksgiving-" "Did I ASK what holiday it was after? NO! Give me a date! You have to give me a date! HOW close did his hand come to your face?" "A few inches-" "NO!!!! Was it ONE inches or THREE inches?!" The conversation went on like that, with me shaking and crying into the phone, wondering if I'd made a terrible mistake. Finally, she made it through her checklist, so I tried asking my question finally (concerning custody of my son and how to best protect him) , and she shut me down and said she didn't want to talk to me any more until I got a restraining order against my husband, and hung up. After consulting with a few other lawyers (none of whom treated me like that!) I found out that restraining orders are actually very complicated and not always the best solution even in abuse situations. I can't believe Debra was ready to shout advice at me without listening to my situation. Why did she ever volunteer to help abused women?

We first met with Debra and she was very empathetic to our plight, my partner going through a very messy divorce. Mid way he realized he needed representation as his ex had acquired a very skilled lawyer pro-bono who was willing to use whatever tactics to win. She listened and made some very enco...uraging recommendations. I remember almost crying as we walked home that day feeling like finally things would be put right. How very wrong we were. Over the next 10 days, Debra met with us twice. Once to make empty promises and give false hope and last to charge my credit card $10,000 for her retainer. I remember her relating to my partner as they both have Jewish background and both had parents that were Holocaust survivors. We felt this woman would really help us. She seemed to "understand". As she left the room that second (and last) meeting after taking the $10000, she turned and said, "Just remember no matter how bad it gets, it's not Auschwitz." and walked away laughing. We never saw her her again. She assigned us one of her assistants who ended up blowing through our entire retainer and then some in 10 days. We got a bill on day 10 before any actual work had been done or produced other than a few letters to the opposing lawyer. The amount was for several thousand over our retainer which had to be paid before any more work was done. Then they demanded another $6000 retainer over and above. We got that on Friday afternoon. We both were sick all weekend, realizing we had been had.

Unfortunately, the negative reviews echo my experience. I have dealt with a lot of attorneys over the past four years so I understand how it works. Schoenberg is a magnificent sales person and that is all. The firm appears to spend a lot of time dotting i's and crossing t's but unfortunately that att...ention to detail applies mostly to the billing, which is frequent and copious. The retainer is hefty and it is expended in record time. The requests for further retainers are always accompanied by the statement that you, the client, have already run through the retainer and owe several thousands. Panicked, you quickly scramble to come up with more money because you've been told that work can not go on unless you pay the retainer immediately. But you do it because, for you, this case is incredibly important. That is the weakness the firm exploits. Favorite catch phrase "there is a lot of work to be done." But that work seems to be mostly reviewing emails and "researching." Apparently your case is so confusing that large amounts of expensive research must be done. How confusing is family law really, though? It's pretty cut and dry. It's just that we, the lay person, are not lawyers and we're scared and emotional and desperately want help. Don't be preyed upon! I take responsibility for my poor decision in hiring this firm and continuing to pay retainers I could not afford until I finally pulled the plug. Nothing was accomplished other than that I now have a deeper understanding of predatory practice and my own naivety. A costly and discouraging lesson.