Ben Anderson House

Summary: In my experience, Ben House may be fine for paperwork or assisting another attorney, but he is not suited to lead or handle a family law trial independently. Ben House was assigned to assist with my family law and custody matter in Santa Clara County around 2023–2024 when my main attorney..., Natalie Deprile, delegated part of the work to him. My feedback is based on direct observations during preparation and at trial. Ben presents himself as calm and attentive, and he can manage background paperwork adequately when a strong lead attorney is overseeing him. However, his strategic approach and courtroom performance were weak. Before the trial, he discussed possible strategies with me and gave the impression that he would present the key points and materials I had provided. But once we were in court, his confidence level dropped noticeably. When it came time to question the opposing party, he appeared unsure, spoke very little, and did not follow through on the strategy we had discussed. He had extra time to ask a question during direct examination but he didn’t have questions prepared in advance. This reflected a lack of courtroom readiness and assertiveness, which are essential in trial situations. The firm billed as if he was coordinating closely with the lead attorney, but his performance did not demonstrate that collaboration. Based on my experience, Ben might be suitable for routine paperwork or smaller, uncontested matters, but not for trials or hearings that require strong advocacy. If the lead attorney is not directly involved and monitoring the case, important arguments or opportunities can easily be lost.

I sincerely recommend Hoover Krepelka, and Ben House specifically without reservation. I’ve worked on multi-billion dollar merger transactions in my career where we spent millions of dollars on lawyers and if I closed my eyes I couldn’t tell the difference in terms of capability and professionalism.... Beyond that, I really enjoyed working with Ben and Travis on a personal level. Let’s not pretend this is an enjoyable situation to be dealing with, but I always felt very supported. Here’s my story: I tried to manage this process myself, and made very little progress getting the opposing counsel to take me serious so I decided to hire some help. To identify the right fit I scraped a public site with every lawyer in the state in order to filter for a minimum level of experience and education levels. I had calls with over a dozen qualified lawyers to consider an engagement, and I also asked each of them one last question “who is the most capable trial lawyer that you really wouldn’t want to go against”. Hoover Krepelka came up 1/3rd of the time, so I knew I needed to talk to them. When they came on board the other side changed their posture – the credibility was evident immediately. My case was complicated (including millions of dollars at play and an ex-spouse who was threatening to move the kids to a different state). This team was able to listen, ask questions and make strategic assessments that were very on point. They were very responsive and hardworking even when juggling other cases concurrently. We formulated a dual process for litigation and negotiation, and having the credible firepower to litigate if needed was absolutely necessary to achieve a negotiated outcome. The story ended well and I think both sides were happy (enough) with the results and there is zero chance it would have ended up so well without this team. I cannot thank them enough.

Ben was a pleasure to work with throughout my case. He was responsive, insightful, and remarkably patient in the moments I felt anxious and overwhelmed. While my case was far more simple than most, Ben always made me feel like I was a priority. His professional, reasonable, and rational approach to t...he process, along with his ability to communicate well with the attorney representing the other party, facilitated the mutual agreement both parties needed in order to feel comfortable moving to resolution. Not only would I recommend Ben, but I'd wouldn't hesitate to use him again in the event I needed legal counsel.