Heidi Leah Henkel

Please do not hire her or her law firm. I was dealing with an abusive ex and she had no compassion or empathy whatsoever. All she cared was increasing her billing hours; when I asked to speak to her supervisor she just gasliighted me into thinking I was the issue. The whole experience was just strang...e and bizarre. I’m still trying to reconcile in my head how someone could charge over $15,000 for so little work. But I’m glad to never need to speak with her or her law firm ever again. I feel like her and her law firm just took advantage of me and increased my stress. She would take no responsibility for anything and would be nasty to me if I questioned anything.

1. Communication: I continually had to reach out to her about upcoming events. For example, right before the hearing, she did NOT communicate AT ALL about what to expect or prepare. I had to reach out to her a day before the hearing and asked if there is any I should prepare or expect. Notably, if sh...e doesn’t know what my goal/objective/perception is, how was she going to REPRESENT me? She kindly responded very quickly with a couple of sentences. What next? Use of her six minutes just for several sentences – which I was billed and had to pay. 2. Expertise: I continually doubted her expertise and experience in the legal matter. First, she kept changing her statements about whether I (and the other party involved) could join the hearing via Zoom. She changed her statement 2-3 times. It turns out – she had the wrong information from the first. I eventually received the correct information by reaching out to the counter party in the legal matter. Second, in one of the hearings, I had some time constraints and asked her if I could excuse myself early. She said she would mention my time constraints at the beginning of the hearing before the judge. She NEVER did. Personally, I felt that she was nervous and inexperienced to argue for something. Third, I felt VERY uncertain that she was aware of what was going on. I have PhD degree, like to learn new stuff, and want to have personal matters under my control. She conveyed some information that kind of went against Wisconsin law, and I had to ask a lot of questions to Heidi (again, higher bills). The hearing turned out as I expected – not as she expected. In addition, I believe this also arises from she not communicating with the counterparty enough. Maybe she was too busy to take care of my matter. Finally – she created a stipulation letter for me, claiming that she will send it to the state attorney before the hearing. Well – the funny thing is, later on, she mentioned that the state WILL NOT ACCEPT this stipulation letter. Then I began wondering… why did I have to pay for her hours spent in creating a stipulation letter? 3. Representation: Kind of related to the above – I never felt that she was representing me appropriately with care. Before talking to a Guardian Ad Litem OR before the two hearings, she NEVER reached out to me to hear my thoughts, goals, and opinions. Without knowing those… how was she supposed to represent me? Going back to the first point - long story short, I regret trusting whatever info is on this firm’s website and hiring Heidi.