Laura Anne Carlsen

After over 14 years of marriage, and working with another attorney, my divorce case had devolved into a senseless affair. Laura was always a voice of reason and facts. In my case, Laura's calm, clear logic along with her thoughtfully considered written opinions were key to bringing my case to a settlement. As issues have arisen with my sons in the years sense my divorce, I have continued to consult with Laura. She continues to be a pleasure to work with and direct and logical in her counsel. In my personal and business dealings over the years I have been rarely been genuinely impressed by few people in general, and even fewer attorneys. Laura has repeatedly impressed me for her integrity, directness, and ability to keep me focused on what matters.

Laura Carlsen is an exceptional lawyer who only has the best interest for her clients at heart. She guided me in my situation with a lot of professionalism and is a great communicator.Communication is vital during legal matters and Laura and her wonderful paralegal Cyndee did just that for me.She is thorough and very efficient in her work which only brings out the best results. I would recommend her to my friends if they ever needed a great lawyer.You will not be disappointed with Laura.

Laura was prompt, helpful, well informed and clearly invested in looking out for our best interests, even in terms of choices that could help reduce our costs. We were grateful to have Laura's help and guidance throughout the inevitable difficulties and stresses of dealing with legal matters related to child custody. Our child custody case was not a typical case, 2 women vying for child custody, but Laura was confident and optimistic about our case. However, she was also honest about the current laws and our specific situation. Laura was personable, professional, reliable and a pleasure to work with and we wouldn't hesitate to recommend her to someone in need of a family law attorney.

Naturally, I was very upset to learn my second marriage was ending and because I am almost 60 I was VERY concerned I wouldn't have my TRI CARE medical coverage as I had available while married to my spouse who is retired USN. Laura Carlsen was SO empathetic and yet calmly direct and professional! She answered ALL my questions fully in a way I could easily understand. With her knowledgable directives, I was able to apply positive actions towards my necessary decision making process of separating and handling all the endless details. this allowed me to focus clearly and move forward emotionally, as well as mentally. The piece of mind I received even after just my first visit and consultation with her, helped me to make the hard necessary steps in ending my marriage. She suggested SEVERAL items to include in my settlement so that I will continue to receive my medical coverage until I can get Medicare! Needless to add I didn't KNOW how to include these or even IF I COULD! So the reason I titled this commentary " I can't speak highly enough " is because it is RARE to find an organized, available, concerned, EXCELLENT attorney who knows how to proceed in such a professional, direct, empathetic and kind way while still keeping MY best interests at the forefront of her precise and excellent work. I would highly recommend Laura Carlsen to anyone who is seeking legal counsel. She truly is a rare gem in today's busy world. Her assistant Cynthia like laura, was also always readily available by email, and phone. Separating and divorcing is a terrible emotional maze of legal hoops to jump through, and without Laura Carlsen's guidance and on point assurances and TRUTHFUL PRECISE FOLLOW THROUGH I wouldn't have been able to navigate this troubling time. Again I highly recommend her and praise her law firm for being savvy enough to have her on their roster of attorneys. She is what ALL attorneys SHOULD be and rarely ARE. Sincerely, Deborah L. Wright

We retained Laura due to her extensive glowing reviews on avvo. Unfortunately, the service provided by her and her team did not meet the standards illustrated herein. Laura failed to make a presence in our case and retain any vital case details as well as failing to respond on our behalf. The documents she submitted us for review each listed minor and major oversights illustrating a lack of investment from her team. After utilizing over half of the retainer paid "reviewing case details" she failed to recall any information regarding our requests or specific details of our case. Each document we received had a different jurisdiction heading including Kitsap, Pierce and King counties while our case was taking place solely in Kitsap county. These details are important but clearly illustrated a "cut and paste" investment in preparing court documents. I have never received such poor efficiency in utilization of a legal retainer. After notifying client services of our concerns, they failed to address our concerns nor request for alternate legal representation nor respond as promised. The majority of our retainer was consumed at a rapid rate thereafter. It appears we were billed for a performance review and for clerical errors to be updated throughout the case. I have never seen such a high retainer be consumed before even appearing in court. After 8 years of practice, I would have expected a better performance from our representation.

After a few weeks of trying to get an attorney to represent me in spike of my lack of financial resources my daughter and I met with Yonga Matsumoto [an account person] and Laura Carlsen [the attorney assigned to my case] of McKinley Irwin. From the very beginning we made it very plain that our purpose was to engage an attorney simply to help me respond to my husband’s petition for a divorce and attend a hearing to request an order for him to pay legal fees. .I could not raise their normal retainer of $3000. We agreed on $1000 and my brother and sister each charged $500 to credit cards to pay it. We asked several times to be sure that this should be all we would need to pay to get to the point where my husband would be required to pay my legal fees. They claim that this is not true but they cannot claim that they did not know that I have no money. But without their assurances that it should be enough I would NEVER have paid the $1000 as I knew I would not be able to raise any more. So, I did as much of the work as I could and Laura finalized the documents for me and submitted the appropriate responses and a cross motion for legal fees. Then about a week later on April 19 – I received a message to call Susan Manns about my account. When I returned her call she said that she needed another $1000 from me and that I had to give her a credit card to charge and I had to do it “NOW”. I explained to Susan that coming up with the first $1000 was a hardship and that there was no way I could pay another $1000 until April 27 when I will receive a $3000 IRS refund. To that she said either I give her the money right then and there or they would drop my case. I said that I understood that Laura could not work on my case until I come up with extra money and that it would be fine as long as they picked it up again when I could pay the additional $1000 in a week. To my utter shock her response was that once they dropped the case that that would be it, that they do not do business with people who cannot pay their bills. In total disbelief I repeated what she said that they would drop the case and I would have to start over and she simply repeated that they do not work with people who cannot pay their bills. She was extremely rude and condescending and hung up on me when I tried to reason with her. I have been in contact with one of the senior partners [David Stark] and he simply says that Laura will not do anymore work on my case and she will not represent me at the hearing in spite of the fact that she filed a notice of her intent to represent me with the court.