I talked to many lawyers and choosing Chris Karlan from this firm was an easy choice. Chris is a great lawyer full stop. Dedicated and hard-working, honest and thorough. He knows all the players - the judges, opposing counsel, mediators - which he uses to his advantage. Easy to communicate with, quick to respond. I can't imagine going through this process with anyone else. read more

Meg was the best we could ask for when it came to a lawyer! The way she presented herself was professional and confident in what she does best "law". We couldn't have been more proud to walk in the trial with her as a lawyer! It took years and hard work for her to get there and it showed. Experience is necessary in any family situation ,especially this one, that ends up going to court let alone trial! She was always taking notes and always listening with compassion for what we were going through as a child's guardian. A child's life was needing her and us. We needed an expert to present our case and why we wanted to just go to trial. Trial was not fun! It was exhausting and time consuming but it was real and we had th evidence. She then had the facts and she presented them. She represented us and gave us a chance to be who we are as people. We are compassionate about what we are doing and we are caring people that are giving a child a chance and she represented us in a way it was heard. In the end the judgement was in our favor. Guardians, in a very tough situation, is hard but we knew we needed a strong lawyer to protect a child's life and we got it! We know if we need her again she will help us again! Thank you Meg and I would write reviews everywhere to let people know how happy we were to be represented by you and your law firm. Ms. Margaret A. Boudreau Growe Eisen Karlen Eilerts,LLC. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! read more

Horrible people with 0 ethics. Will make your family suffer in an already trying time to jack up fees. Definitely do not use if you have children involved in the matter. read more

Over the past 6 years this firm, Rick Eisen and his associate Alex Hudson have helped my husband file divorce against me 3 times. They have been the nastiest lawyers to me, and have just continued to collect monies from my husband when in all cases he eventually dropped the case (except for this final time). This doesn't even count the times in between where they just "took retainers" to establish some type of scare tactic against me. At one point in the events my lawyer looked at me and said he had such disdain for this firm and their actions, that he no longer would take the cases over again. In this last case, before I found a lawyer, I was pro se and speaking with Mr. Eisen and asked why his firm would continue to take money from a client that was continually irrational with the legal process. I expressed that my former attorney refused to continue to take legal cases with the firm, and me as a client because he knew the merry go round wouldn't end. Sadly, they just continued and it was more for the monies they collected vs. actually taking into account the irrational behaviors of my husband and his actions. And this has been going on for years, against all of my husband's former spouses. These lawyers destroyed my marriage, financially drowned my husband and our household, and helped to assist in destructing a family that had a chance for a lifetime together. 8 kids blended and good friends. They don't take into account the emotional stability or rationale of their clients. And I believe they'd take money from a homeless man if they could. To drain someone of every last cent. They are corrupt and unethical in their practice and I would never recommend their firm to anyone. And in reading their reviews there apparently are many other complaints as well. read more

Do you know what steps to follow when you realize... after truly contemplating the situation... that you need to legally end a 30 year marriage? I came to that realization in August of 2020. I won't go into the details of course, but the first move I made was to reach out to one of my best friends to learn who successfully litigated her divorce. She said, "Call Rick Eisen!" Rick Eisen is the best of the best in the Family Law/Divorce Litigation arena! Rick and his Legal Team are professional and they care about the client. They walked me though the divorce process, answered ALL of my questions, and advocated for me to arrive at the best outcome for me and my family. I am forever grateful to Rick Eisen for his knowledge, insights into my ex-spouse's next moves, and how to always rise above the situation and negotiate through the nonsense and messiness that my ex-spouse proposed during the divorce process. Reach out to Rick Eisen. He will walk with you through your divorce experience and you will successfully arrive on the other side of your situation with the confidence and the plan for a brighter future. Thank you Rick! read more

If I wanted to work with things like divorce attorneys Chris Karlen and Alex Hudson, I would have been a proctologist. They are an expensive, incompetent, and deceitful. Expensive Chris charges between $300 and $330 per hour, however he extensively uses Alex Hudson, another attorney in the firm, at a rate of $250 per hour. At my divorce trial, I was billed for both Chris and Alex, so $580/hour. My wife's attorney managed to present her case by himself for only $250/hour. There were numerous joint conferences with Alex, Chris, and myself which cost me $580/hour. Incompetent In an email of January 22, 2020 I asked him how to file a HIPAA complaint; he replied, "For a HIPAA violation you could contact the licensing board. You could also file a civil suit." He is wrong. HIPAA complaints are filed through the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights. Negotiations for the Parenting Plan were a rushed, harried process and he had me assign to my spouse all Spring Breaks. In my email of March 8, 2021, I asked Chris why he instructed me to approve the Plan, he replied, "After Judge Hilton issues a Judgement you can file a Motion to Modify." What should have been negotiated equitably, will now cost me additional time, money, and hassle. Deceitful In an email of March 12, 2020, I wrote, "Could you please tell me the status on the subpoenas I requested be sent out?", and listed the six subpoenas needed for my divorce trial. A month later, on April 22, 2020, I emailed Chris asking for the status of of the four most important subpoenas; I received no reply, but on April 27, did receive, and pay, a bill for $8,500, of the $71,000 I paid him. In an email to Alex on May 5, 2020 asking if she had received medical records that were supposed to be subpoenaed, she wrote, "Not yet. We should have them next week." Two weeks later in an email to Alex on May 17 I ask, "So there is not one single subpoena that has been answered yet?" She replied, "We do not have records on any of them yet." On June 17, 2020 I emailed Alex, "What is the status of getting the medical record that was subpoenaed months ago?" She replied, "I will follow up with the doctor's office and get back to you shortly." None of the six subpoenas I was repeatedly told were being processed were ever answered. In violation of the Parenting Plan, I did not receive my court-ordered custody for the second week in June, 2020. Chris told me that I needed to go to the courthouse and file a contempt of court. The court clerk said that if I had an attorney, the attorney had to file the Motion for Contempt. On July 10, 2020, I signed and returned to Chris the Motion for Contempt he had drafted. Seven months later, on February 9, 2021, I forwarded Chris the email from July 2020 of my signed copy of the Motion for Contempt and asked, "What was the resolution of this filing for contempt in July 2020? Thanks" He replied, "The Motion for Contempt was filed, but not set for hearing." I asked, "Why no hearing?". Chris replied, "No more emails. Call me when you have time." I never called. When Jerry Seinfeld says, "So you can take a reservation, but you can't keep a reservation", it's funny. When you realize your attorney is not helping you see your children, it's infuriating and demoralizing. Summary When you are lying in bed at night worried about your children and thinking about your divorce, you don't need to be angry and frustrated with your divorce attorney and mentally weighing the expense of firing him and starting over with another. A divorce is often a multi-year process. You've suffered enough abuse, lies, and deceit in your marriage, don't compound your problem by hiring Chris Karlen. They are facing a complaint before the Missouri Bar for the above allegations substantiated by emails and formal charges of breach of contract and fraud will be filed. read more

Mr. Chris Karlen was the most incompetent lawyer we have ever had to deal with. We have personally worked in the Federal Court system for 30 years and throughout those years have worked with countless attorneys and law firms, both good and bad. He fails horribly to communicate with his clients and to provide information and updates concerning case status,. He is self-absorbed with his own grandiose opinion of himself. It was impossible to get Mr. Karlen to keep us informed about our case. He never provided letters with updates, case status, outcome of defendant conversations, results of actions pursued, etc. When he did speak with us he will only speak on the phone so that there is no paper trail. He will promise everything but not follow through. He incorrectly completed and failed to file documents. We had to correct and sometimes generate documents he needed to file and also had to remind him of impending deadlines. When he does talk to clients he is extremely arrogant and talks down to his clients. In our entire one year experience he never performed the single, most important objective of our case, the purpose for which he was hired, to request discovery of documents. When we finally dumped Karlen, and began using another attorney (at 1/3rd the cost), we realized, even more so, what a pathetic job he had done and how refreshing it is to work with a professional attorney. Not an arrogant, jack leg. With our new attorney within weeks we had discovery documents filed, full written communication about what was being done and what was going on with our case. It was Be very careful doing business with this firm. As a client, we found many instances of incompetence and false promises. Demand all communication be done via email/in writing, the attorney makes many false promises and wishes to avoid any type of paper trail. The law firm has no concern for their client's best interests. The client has been a Paralegal / Legal Secretary in legal offices for over 30 years. With that being said, this law firm, and specifically our attorney Chris Karlen, did not provided a trace of competent legal counsel or client representation. Had the client not been an experienced legal professional, things would have been more catastrophic. If a future client of this attorney is not familiar with the law and does not monitor this law firm closely, I fear they will be terribly exploited. Our overall experience with this attorney and the other firm partners is that they were unprofessional, rude, arrogant, and insulting. read more

Be very careful doing business with this firm. As a client, we found many instances of incompetence and false promises. Demand all communication be done via email/in writing, the attorney makes many false promises and wishes to avoid any type of paper trail. The law firm has no concern for their client's best interests, only billable hours. The client has been a Paralegal / Legal Secretary in legal offices for over 30 years. With that being said, this law firm, and specifically our attorney Chris Karlen, did not provided a trace of competent legal counsel or client representation. Had the client not been an experienced legal professional, things would have been more catastrophic. If a future client of this attorney is not familiar with the law and does not monitor this law firm closely, I fear they will be terribly exploited. My overall experience with this attorney and the other firm partners is that they were unprofessional, rude, arrogant, and insulting. 1. Manipulated charges: 1.1. Did not perform the services he said he would for the estimated cost. Within months he was billing additional monies. 1.1.1. Excerpt from email: "In our initial phone conversation when we discussed retainer fees, you stated you believed the $*k should be enough to get us to the point of having trust documents and financial information to review and that, 'barring unforeseen complications or issues', would allow us to make an informed decision about moving forward. We provided all the necessary information and we relied on your knowledge and experience to estimate what steps and procedures would be involved in this process. At this point, there have been no unforeseen complications or issues since our initial conversation. You were even able to outsource your first court trip to a local attorney which saved us quite a bit of money and which we appreciated. Since we provided you with all the information up front for you to make an informed estimate, we find it difficult to understand how your estimate was so far off that you now require an additional $*k - and we still have no new information." Although multiple attempts were made, the attorney never replied to, or even acknowledged, our concerns and questions. 2. Inflating billing hours: 2.1. Excerpt from email: "We hoped that the original $*k retainer would have at least taken us through getting additional documentation to review. We're disappointed that the subpoenas were not prepared earlier since they were actually issued before the motion for contempt was served; however, no action was taken on the subpoenas for over 4 months. This puts us in the position of spending additional money without the benefit of reviewing the documentation and making an informed decision on whether or not to proceed." 3. Incompetence - Some examples include: 3.1. Most baffling is the fact that after 14 months the attorney had still not requested written discovery (request for production of documents) which was our primary objective and always the very first step to be taken. 3.2. Consistently sent emails to an invalid email addresses. 3.3. Repeatedly failed to provide us with our copies of documents, subpoenas, etc. 3.4. Failed to follow our wishes on actions to be taken. 3.5. Failed to file written discovery. 3.6. Consistently dropped the ball through the following actions: 3.6.1. Failure to file subpoenas in the time sensitive manner 3.6.2. Incorrectly completed subpoenas 3.6.3. At one point the plaintiff prepared a Motion and provided to attorney for submital. However, it was still not filed in time. 3.6.4. The plaintiff, being a legal secretary, repeatedly had to monitor, follow through, and remind the attorney of deadlines and documents. Luckily, plaintiff was knowledgeable enough to monitor the situation and catch many errors and delays. However, that should never have been necessary; especially at the hourly rates we were being charged. 4. The client, being a paralegal, had to constantly stay on top of the attorney to make sure things got done on time and correctly. Work done FOR the attorney because he was dropping-the-ball included: {performed the following tasks and provided to our attorney} 4.1. Edited and corrected Subpoenas 4.2. Created Motion (was provided well in advance but still wasn't filed in time) 4.3. Researched case law 4.4. Researched Burden of Proof laws 4.5. Researched family trust and farm subsidy regulations 4.6. Reminded attorney of deadlines 4.7. Constantly monitored attorney's progress and responsibilities through the courts public information (because we normally did not get any information from the attorney) 4.8. After extended periods of no activity plaintiff constantly had to remind attorney of what he need to be pursuing and what documents we were trying to accomplish. 4.9. Researched and provided pertinent County Assessor information 5. Communication: 5.1. More often than not, attorney would never re read more