Lisa K Barton

I hired Lisa for what I expected to be an easy, amicable divorce, based on a recommendation from a friend. As often happens, this quickly changed under the stress of trying to sort out our new lives apart. We were lucky in that we didn’t have children involved in the process, but we did have ass...ets that were difficult to divide based on the legal system’s definition of fair. I met with one other lawyer and quickly saw the difference between a Litigator “let’s go to court” lawyer and a Collaborative lawyer who works cooperatively and gives you the best chance to keep things on a civil basis. Lisa is the latter. She works well with other lawyers (my husband had 3 by the time we were done) and mediators. She is respectful of both sides. Her low-key approach helps to keep things from escalating, making it easier to keep everyone focused and on track. It’s an emotional process and it can be tricky to do that. It may appear that she isn’t responding to something that you’re pointing out, but I found later that she had tucked things away in case we did have to go to court. She is a realist and understands the cost/benefit of going that route in dollar, emotional and privacy costs. Settling is better and that’s her focus. I found her very easy to work with. We did maybe 85% of our correspondence via email, so I could do it on my time and give what I wanted to say some thought before hitting “send”. She responded within 24 work day hours. Email keeps costs down - it takes less time than a phone call or office visit and it provides good documentation. But when I thought I needed to see her, I was able to get in quickly. She has a very good support team, and works with a great forensic accountant who helped me keep a good portion of investments that I had earned prior to the marriage that had been muddied over time and had to be untangled. He also helped sort out appropriate sharing of appreciation on the house that I owned prior to marriage. Lisa is tough and tenacious. She continued to work for settlement long after I had given up hope that we could accomplish that. She made me aware of the potential that the court could award so that I could make an informed decision on what made sense for settlement. We were able to agree to terms that the court would not necessarily have given, which could have cost even more in taxes on liquidated investments. My advice to you would be this. You’re paying someone for their training and expertise. Help them to help you as much as you can. Do what they suggest, complete your paperwork as quickly as possible, be your own advocate, and stay focused on getting through it. (“If you’re going through hell, keep going”, Winston Churchill). It does end, it does get better, and then you can get on with your new life.

I hired Lisa because her price was reasonable and she seemed nice but I was disappointed while going thru the divorce process. She was very passive and was not a good defender. I brought up stuff to her that she could have used in my case to get what I want but she didn't do anything about it. I woul...d say if you need help filing papers and that sort of thing, she is good but don't hire her if you want to win your fight.