Michele K McNeill

We were in a time sensitive situation. Michele went completely out of her way to assist us and was willing to review our paperwork and contracts. Her advice was very appropriate and saved us a considerable amount of worry and money.

Michele McNeill is an extremely professional and exceptionally experienced attorney. Her sharp expertise and well-researched legal briefs allow for a successful resolve for any client she represents. Her style is no-nonsense, practical, intelligently executed representation and always focused on the good of her clients. Her knowledge base is expansive, as she is well-diversified in her humane and compassionate representation and clearly able to address most any issue connected with a case. Excellent firm with quality representation! Sometimes slow to return phone calls, only because of their high demand and thorough research for all clients. Very communicative and worth every ounce of trust from clients!

I am a real estate Broker and Michele has been a huge help to myself and many of my clients. With many successfully closed transactions with Michele's assistance in short sale negotiations, I would highly recommend working with this attorney if you have questions about anything Real Estate!

I was looking at different options in regards to my home since I was in a severe negative equity situation. Michele was very thorough and spent a considerable amount of time reviewing all the different scenarios and options. She was always great about follow up and always responded immediately to any other questions I had either via email or phone. I've been very impressed with the overall service and responsiveness and have recommended her to friends and colleagues.

Michele and her staff have been very good to us and responsive to our needs.

and have always been more than satisfied with her knowledge, response and honesty. I have never had a problem getting a response or update from her and her knowledge has indeed helped me better my own business practices.

Michele represented me in an employment related case. She successfully help settle the case in my favor. She is very patient, smart, knowledgeable lawyer. She is super negotiator. I highly recommend her.

Smart, tough, responsive to my questions, calls and emails - I give this lawyer a ten (but had to settle for five here).

I would like to retract my previous review of Michele K McNeill. After I had cooled down and reviewed the services and the advice you provided, I am now satisfied that you did indeed represent me as you had promised. I would like to apologize for my overly critical and harsh review posted earlier by me.

I hired Michele as my attorney in February of this year to help me with a personal property case. My jeweler had lost my engagement ring the September before and was failing to replace it as he had promised. I had already been through a lot with this jeweler so I was really looking for someone who would be able to help and support me in getting my ring back. I explained what had happened from start to finish to Michele and she agreed to take my case on. She explained the first steps, was responsive and made me feel understood and supported, but that did not last the entire relationship. Throughout the 7 months we worked together communications were delayed and lacking, and as time progressed I felt more like I was paying for a messenger than an advocate. At times, it even felt as though Michele was catering more to opposing counsel than me, her client. To add to the frustration, as I was in the middle of feeling disappointed, I received a notice that she would be increasing her prices. Also, my husband and I have had our names either misspelled or called the incorrect name multiple times. In one of my last email correspondence, her assistant called me the completely incorrect name, I replied and let her know that wasn't my name, then she called me the wrong name again in her next email and never apologized. Super bizarre and unprofessional. Even in trying to figure out a billing issue, her assistant didn't understand how their billing system works on the client-end, which made for additional unnecessary confusion and frustrations. I considered hiring another attorney multiple times but at those points, I felt as though my hands were tied because of how involved things were already and my fear that changing would set things back even more. It took 7 months for me to finally receive my ring. I'm glad I finally have it but feel strongly that I could've have achieved this with a different attorney and had a better experience while doing so. If you want an attorney and team that is consistently responsive, detail-oriented, professional and someone to make you feel supported and advocated for, I recommend looking elsewhere.

Wanted legal advice on a fairly routine easement running across my property for a utility company proposing to expand its use through my Woodinville land. We have had power lines cut across our back yard for the entire 18 years we have lived here -- but we are concerned and sought advice about how to react to a power company proposal to add additional capacity and poles in our community along with a new and more restrictive easement agreement offered by the power company to affected property owners. I conducted ALL of the necessary title research myself at county archives and obtained certified copies of prior easements dating back to the early 1900's (2 pages) which pre-dated my ownership of the property; I secured all available documents from the power company explaining their proposed expanded use (2 pages); and provided a marked-up copy (3 pages) of the draft new easement agreement from the power company -- and then I digitized the materials on my scanner and sent them via email to McNeill. About 10 pages of material in total. I provided an upfront $250 as a deposit for legal services. We met for just under one hour at McNeill's Bellevue offices -- attorney was almost ten minutes late for the scheduled appointment -- to discuss her findings and observations. McNeill prepared no letters, written suggestions, easement amendments or legal analysis demonstrating any significant review of the materials provided or the process entailed in modifying the existing easement agreement with new provisions as proposed by the power company. In fact, McNeill offered little more than oral commentary essentially urging restraint and common sense in the matter (duh!), suggesting I could meet and work out a deal with the power company for their intended expansion of use on my land. She offered no inventory of potential opportunities to leverage my position using federal, state & local permits; no analysis demonstrating the respective strengths and weaknesses of the opposing positions held by myself or the power company in this potential dispute; no suggestions to push for an environmental impact review to assess impacts of proposed new high voltage power lines running 30 feet outside my back window; she did not direct me to the Utilities & Transportation Commission or refer me to any WAC or RCW citations: in short, there were no particularly helpful suggestions or alternatives described to me regarding potential next steps. Even more bewildering -- McNeill asserted in our meeting that the power company might not even have a valid easement across my land. Weeks later, I was billed an additional $292.50 for "preparation for meeting with client". I am disappointed with the limited effort and corresponding excessive charges levied by this attorney on my due diligence review effort. To this day -- the only thing I have received in writing from this attorney are emails scheduling the appointment and a $542.50 bill. I do not feel that I have received value for this expenditure. I would strongly urge anyone looking for assistance to seek counsel somewhere else.

Like many readers who use Avvo, I contacted Michele after finding her 10 star rating on Avvo. I wanted loan modification on and Michele walked me through some options. It looked like I was in good hands... But after initial meeting, it was hard to even reach his legal assistant. I sent out my documents and she and her team was supposed to send them and connect with my bank. None of my documents were sent for 2 months !!! No updates, no follow ups nothing. I called multiple times. 2 months later, I was told to resend the documents. I sent those in 2-3 days. Again no action. Actually for 6 months no followup with bank was done. Sometime Michele was out of town and sometimes her assistant. What I was constantly updated about was my bills. I don't know how my bill went upto $1000 without any action. Last week, I was told that Michele is no longer interested in my case and she has changed legal assistant. I replied back with higher fee for handling my case and resolving it successfully. She didn't accept that offer and declined to handle my case further. I am back to Square one. Michelle is all about hope and nothing about action. I wish I had other lawyer who would have helped me. Please don't get blind sided by shiny ratings !!!!