Cynthia B Whitaker

Years ago my sister-in-law observed many divorce attorneys at court as part of her job, and she was particularly impressed with how effectively Cynthia Whitaker defended her clients. So she gave me Cynthia’s name when I needed a lawyer. I am very happy I got that recommendation. I started with ...a group legal plan network lawyer to represent me because it was free. But my spouse chose a lawyer who bills herself as being “aggressive” and lives up to the billing. Opposing counsel sent an interrogatory with no fewer than 150 questions, including excessive demands for documentation (e.g., provide the medical files from every doctor who has ever treated you for anything), and many repetitive and pointless questions (e.g., provide evidence that your son is enrolled in college, which wasn’t in dispute). When documentation I provided didn’t look like what OC expected, she made accusations that I was deliberately concealing things. The network lawyer’s tactic was to descend to the same level of negativity. Without consulting me, she turned the 150-question interrogatory around and sent the very same list to my spouse, naively suggesting that “maybe she’ll see how much work it is and decide to settle.” That’s when I switched to Cynthia. With Cynthia I never had that problem of my lawyer taking an unexpected action. She kept me informed of everything going on and got my approval for every action she took. Cynthia never responded to negativity with negativity, and a good example is what she did with that interrogatory. We noted all the questions that were pointless or made sense only for me because they were about affairs that only I knew about, and we sent notice withdrawing those questions. Cynthia responded to all the baseless accusations clearly, concisely, and respectfully. Her ability to make a case succinctly and effectively in writing is phenomenal. The intro letter for mediation was complete and accurate, effectively laying out all the relevant facts. And when we got OC’s intro letter with numerous distortions and inaccuracies, Cynthia’s follow-up was a masterpiece of clear, dispassionate, and convincing rebuttal that set the stage for mediation to go well. At one point during mediation, OC had written a long tortuous paragraph trying to precisely describe a visitation scenario for the parenting plan, and Cynthia crossed it out and wrote in its place a single sentence that perfectly captured the same intent. Also much appreciated was Cynthia’s evident empathy for what I was experiencing. You might think of the relationship with your lawyer as being a business one, but the divorce process, especially when dealing with an overtly “aggressive” attorney on the other side, is emotionally trying, to put it mildly. It helped to feel that my emotional responses were understood when OC was making invasive demands and false accusations. At first I was apprehensive about signing on with Cynthia because her hourly rate was significantly higher than others I’d looked into. But I found that she makes very efficient use of her time. For the month that included mediation she did an amazing amount of prep work and I was expecting a particularly high bill but it came in at about a third of what I expected. In contrast, many of the documentation and processes insisted upon by OC did nothing to advance my spouse’s cause but did much to increase my spouse’s legal bills. Cynthia did none of those kinds of actions. I learned that a lawyer’s hourly rate is far from the most important factor determining what the whole process will cost. Going into this process I had two goals: to achieve a reasonable financial settlement and to remain on good terms with my ex-spouse. With a less effective lawyer, or a lawyer “aggressive” in the negative sense of OC’s aggressiveness, I might have failed on both counts or achieved one goal at the expense of the other. With Cynthia’s help I achieved both goals.

As an experienced lawyer caught up in a mess of a divorce after a short marriage to a real problem, I was fit to be tied. Cynthia kept me calm (not easy when things are so far out of my control) and effectively neutralized the repeated attacks on my character, ethics and most important on my skills ...as a father of a young child. I am thankful I was referred to her by a trusted physician friend. Cynthia, thank you for being an effective and caring advocate for me.