John Howard McKinley

First of all, this entire practice has been useless. I have had the absolute worst customer service when it comes to phone calls, emails, and communication, in general. John first came across as knowledgeable, strong minded, and helpful. That was short lived. That persona ended as soon as I left the ...building after our first meeting. Once he had my retainer, his communication was lack luster and basically non existent. I asked countless times for explanations on just how this process actually worked, as it was my first time needing a lawyer at all. He never answered questions directly, and the couple times he finally returned an email, they were short, terse, and rude. Because of him and his late responses, my case took over a year, for a simple divorce. His email responses were over a month in between. He clearly just saw me as a nuisance and not worth his own time. My case wasn't going to render him much money, as it was a simple case to settle, so I gathered he dragged it out as much as possible to charge me as much money as he could. His "assistant" never returned emails or calls. John McKinley is exactly why people have a distrust of lawyers and a general dislike of them. He epitomizes the term lackluster. Do yourself a favor and use an entirely different practice.

I hired McKinley to do my divorce and custody battle in 2010. He comes across as confident, knowledgable, and aggressive, of which he is all three. However, as shortly after the case started, I found him to be abrupt, not forthcoming, and completely unhelpful when it came to strategy. He would gat...her facts, but would not advise me on how to come across, nor how the system worked. He would answer questions tersely, with the least amount of information possible, which would naturally lead to more questions from me. This information-hoarding created a cycle in which I would rack up billable hours unnecessarily. it also led to mistakes on his part which cost me thousands. At times he was flat-out rude, which i did not appreciate from a hired contractor at all. He was a poor listener, thinking he knew best in all circumstances what information was needed; however, his performance in court was hit-or-miss, as the only times I came out favorably was when the laws were clearly on my side. Otherwise, when it was up the the judge's discretion, I usually came out on the losing end, even when the other party had inferior lawyers. Thinking his familiarity with my situation might help, I re-hired him for child support. What a mistake. He was a no-star lawyer here, and was a complete waste of money. He divulged no information on how to present my situation to the court, and offered zero insight on how the amount was calculated. It was obvious he took the case just to bilk me of more money, as he put little effort into it, just showing up with nothing. I could have had no lawyer present and ended up the same, save the undeserved lawyer fees. This guy is the epitome of what gives lawyers the poor reputation they have, with high fees, no insight for the paying customer on how to come out the best way possible, and a good-old-boy attitude in court with no appreciation for the seriousness of the situation the the client.