Katy M. Gronowski

I am a member of the California Bar, now inactive, having previously practiced in General Civil (mostly personal injury) law for 14 years before leaving California for Georgia. My older adult autistic son had informal visitation with me for eight years when my ex- pulled the plug on any visitation be...yond her whim. I went nuts, literally... so did my son... and I made the classic error of trying to represent myself in this highly nuanced, to say nothing of emotionally and financially toxic, area of law. I made some (in retrospect) unbelievably bad errors... seemed like good ideas at the time!... and managed to get my ex-, her attorney, the Department of Child Support Services, and the Court Clerk (if not the Court itself) pissed off at me big-time, ultimately leading to the denial of all visitation with my son and the garnishment of my financial life-blood. In other words, a mess a mile high and just as wide. I serendipitously found Katy, and the first thing she did for me was simply (and critically) to calm me down. I came to her as "the expert" in my own situation, and rather than whack me upside the head with the criticism that I clearly was not any such thing, she broke the situation down into simple steps that I could follow towards repairing the damage done and moving to a good conclusion, and along the way noted, "oh, and here it might have been better to...", thus teaching me as much as representing my best interests. Katy keeps the long view in her advice and steps taken, even while (as in my case) what was transpiring was a continuous set of fires big and small that had to be put out along the way. She eased back the rancor that had developed among the parties, whereas I've seen in my legal life so many attorneys who delve into a case's minutia so much that mountains are made of molehills and the hopes of a reasonably quick settlement disappear. Before I hired Katy, I had started way too fast and had gone way too far for the case to come to an easy resolution, and it turned out to be expensive beyond what I had hoped, and none of that was Katy's fault. Quite the contrary, she always included in her continuing advice recommendations for limiting costs and fees, not just for me, but for the other parties as well... a holistic view that in the family law context is critical to a resolution that all can live with, especially where there is a child involved with special needs. Katy kept her fees to the minimum possible under the circumstances, including the fact that she is a lawyer of considerable experience and success. To me as a client, the matter seemed destined for trial, and she kept me appropriately prepared for that eventuality, but also reminded me that it was in everyone's reasonable interest to settle. She was absolutely tenacious when it came to drawing appropriate lines in the sand, not only vis-à-vis my angry ex- and her not-very-often-paid counsel, but also when having to oppose the more obstinate positions taken by the government bureaucracies involved. Despite all of the above complications, and a lot more I don't have the inclination to go on about, Katy helped me come to a livable conclusion as to all issues, and kept her total fees less than those I would have normally paid had I been smart and put the thing in the hands of an attorney so that it was done right to begin with. I am paying the same support as before (when it had looked for awhile like I would be paying double into the indefinite future, PLUS owe back-payments on allegedly underpaid past support) and all other debts were declared null and void between me and my ex-. Most importantly, despite the (continuing!) existence of a demoralizing and on-point Court of Appeals precedent, Katy convinced opposing counsel and thus my ex- to include in the ultimate Court Order Upon Stipulation agreement to continuing visitation on a regular, and not haphazard, basis. I could not give anyone a more hearty recommendation than that I give to Katy.