Susan M. Schauf

I wouldn't recommend her to my enemies! She's anything but an advocate, argues with me more than my ex-wife, my questions to her go unanswered and often repeated, she take the path of less work for her, losses emails and documents, finally made time for my pretrial conference 2 hours before the judge...! She is spread too thin, has too much work and paid the min. attention to my case, My ex wifes lawyer (D Pratte) was 10X better...

I implore you, look elsewhere! Susan Schauf is one of the rudest, most condescending woman I have EVER met. The fact that she hasn't lost her license yet is simply amazing to me. She doesn't answer her phone or return emails. The rare times that she did, she was so rude she actually brought me to ...tears a few times. She spoke to me like I was an idiot every time I asked her a question. During settlement negotiations, I would frequently email her a concern I had and she would just hit forward on her email and send it to my ex-husband's attorney without typing up her own response to his attorney. This is a breach of attorney-client privilege!! It happened so much I actually had to tell her to stop sending them that way, as I did NOT want my ex's lawyer to be privy to my concerns or where I stood on matters. After 2 different email chains between the lawyers, when I said I wasn't going to accept my ex-husband's offer, she got so angry with me that she said she was just going to charge me $2500 to bring him to court and not bother on trying to settle out of court and if I wasn't ok with that, she would just withdraw herself from the case. I swear to you, this was a simple case that could have been settled months before it was if she had put in ANY effort into it. During one of the rare times she agreed to see me in person, she had me wait in her living room. (She practices from her home). Her house has an open floor plan, and I had to listen to her and her assistant discuss, loudly and clearly, another person's confidential matters. I also heard her (not her assistant) speak so derogatory and condescending about her client who wasn't there that I actually felt embarassed and sorry for him. It was so very unprofessional, and I left wondering what she'd said about me with others around. If I hadn't spent thousands already and had the means to hire someone else, I would have. But I knew I was stuck, like it or not. During our settlement conference, she was late (she was for every meeting I had with her) and had NO idea who I was, even after meeting with me a few times before. She hadn't even looked at my file ahead of time and was quizing me before going into the room to talk with my ex and his attorney. She was CLUELESS. After a horrible experience with her, we did finally get the divorce decree signed. She had the NERVE to hug me when it was over. Are you kidding me?!?! She told me to call her anytime if I had questions or concerns. When I called her after months of not getting final documents, I got several rude emails back saying she was busy and she'd get them to me when she had time. When I finally got the documents, they were sent TO MY EX'S HOUSE! Not only that, they were addressed to the wrong name. The cover letter in the inside of the envelope actually had 2 different names written in it. One was almost my correct name (she addressed me by my married name, not maiden name I had it changed to), but she spelled my first name wrong. The other was my correct first name, but a completely made up last name. How hard is it to send your client their documents that they should have gotten months ago, and actually send them to the correct address and to the correct name? Just another example of the shoddy job she does. So I beg you all, PLEASE PLEASE consider someone else. Divorce is an incredibly stressful and scary situation. You don't need your lawyer making it 100x worse for you. I wish to God I had read the reviews more carefully and chosen someone else. Ultimately I went with her because I felt she had been practicing for a long time and must know a great deal, and to be honest, she was cheaper. But years of work doesn't equal experience, and it most certainly doesn't equate to being good with clients. The years have made her nothing if not coarse and uncaring. Spend a little more money, research a little more than I did. You'll be so thankful you did!

I first heard about Susan from a coworker who had used her services and was pleased, at a time when my attorney was difficult to contact or always seemed to be working on someone else's case. After hearing about my coworkers positive review of Susan, I went and talked to her. She took the time to tal...k to me about what to expect and what the law states regarding divorce. Shortly after moving my file over to her office, Susan picked up all the short-comings my previous attorney had either missed or just not completed. I went from feeling like a mushroom, to being in the loop of information and my former spouse's attorney then became the one dragging his feet and not getting paperwork done. My divorce has dragged on, but not by any doing of Susan. She has pushed and pulled as much as she could, and I am very pleased with the outcome of my settlement. I highly recommend her if you need her. Divorce is an ugly thing and I felt very comfortable having her handle my case.

I chose Susan Schauf after using an attorney who got me kicked out of my house at the beginning of my divorce. The attorney I started with bungled many things in addition to getting me kicked out of my house. Susan is very "no nonsense" and focuses on the important issues which in my case was par...enting time and spousal maintenance. My now ex-wife was demanding $4,500.00 for four years and $3,500.00 for life and was attempting to make it so I could see my daughter for only four days per month. It was apparent right away that Susan knew exactly how to deal with such demands and behavior. She guided me through the process and was able to defeat my ex-wife's demands of outrageous spousal maintenance and absurd parenting plan demands. Susan was also able to defeat the demand of my ex-wife's expectation that I pay for all of her legal bills in addition to mine. Although not required, Susan even accompanied me to the mediation hearing. In hind sight, this event was paramount and Susan was able to see first hand that my now ex-wife and her attorney were making outrageous demands that Arizona law does not support. This divorce was brutal and some friends and acquaintances of mine all say that it is the worst one of which they have ever heard. However, nothing ever rattled Susan. She's seemingly seen it all and has vast experience interacting with outrageous and unlawful demands and never waivered during the legal battle. It is my observation that she is intimately familiar with family law and can help especially those who are facing a difficult divorce to include all aspects of it. I have already recommended a friend of mine to Susan as he was experiencing trouble getting positive results from the attorney he had hired before. It is my understanding that he is, in fact, using her services and he is now more confident of the outcome. Further, my divorce started and finished in Pinal County jurisdiction which created a relatively long distance operation for Susan as she is in Pima County but she handled it without fail and filed all necessary records always in a timely fashion. Susan is sharp, focused, and directly to the point. She is very busy but was always responsive to my needs. Finally, and for me this is MOST important, Susan Schauf responds promptly to questions and concerns I had. Whenever I sent a question via email, Susan responded in as little as minutes which is VERY important to me. I recommend Susan Schauf for your family law matters needs as she did an outstanding job for me and created a very manageable outcome for me which are well within expectations.