Mary Leverenz Hammerly

I hired Mary in 2012, post dissolution, after my ex mounted another legal attack against our family. Mary is direct, honest, well-respected, most knowledgeable, articulate, skillful, and most capable. Despite Mary’s years of experience and exceptional legal ability, Mary’s fees are at least 100 dol...lars/hour less than her peers (even at 100 dollars/hour less, Mary’s hourly fee is still approximately the amount an average citizen makes in an entire day). Mary helped defend against my ex’s frivolous motions, uphold our family’s protection orders (while the criminal no contact orders remained in place), and helped our family finalize a parenting plan with domestic violence restrictions without going to trial. We finalized the night before trial and agreed to arbitrate subsequently two sections of the parenting plan. I attribute this in large part to Mary’s tenacity, knowledge of the law, and integrity, which is in direct contrast to the opposing counsel’s character and modus operandi. Due to the years of abuse endured by our family (including but not limited to financial abuse), I was eventually forced to file bankruptcy. I remain in contact with Mary post-bankruptcy (and remain committed to compensating Mary, in full with interest). In 2015, when I was forced to hire another attorney to defend against another legal attack against our family, Mary happened to be in court with another client the day of our initial hearing. Mary was overheard responding to my ex’s attorney in the hallway (in an attempt by opposing counsel to prove that I was lying in my documents submitted in response to their deceitful, unreasonable motion) if it was true that I was compensating Mary for her legal representation post-bankruptcy. Mary’s immediate and honorable response was “yes; she is”. At this point, due to lack of financial means, I no longer have the ability to retain an attorney. I continue, unrepresented (with legal consulting when available), to defend against the domestic abuse our family is forced to continue to endure. I am forever grateful to Mary, and most highly recommend Mary to anyone who needs a most competent and knowledgeable legal advocate. I know that "standing up to the bully" is critical (and is the intent of our founding Fathers in our Constitution) to defending against and stopping abusive use of conflict once and for all for ALL, not just the privileged. Our current system provides this right only for the privileged. This needs to change.