This law firm doesn't believe I'm worthy as a client who deserves respect, attention to detail, and compassion for a divorce that I never wanted, but was dragged into. Mellissa wouldn't even meet me face to face. Honestly, Melissa seems to have a chip on her shoulder regarding men. read more

Costumer Service was terrible!!!!!! Employees & the lawyer itself, the Only one time I got to talk to her by phone! It was when I explained the case & the same time made payment in full at front because she said that she could help, At the end never helped with I hire her for & ignored my calls all the time when I was trying to reach her.. after a few weeks, I asked to the assistant & find out that she couldn't help me with what I asked.. I fired her, then kept ignoring my calls when I asked to talk to her.. at the end gave me a invoice for more then what I hired her, when she never did what I asked her to do. Send me all bunch of ridiculous charges, like getting charge fees from having my girl contacting her by phone or going to her office because I couldn't reach her at all.. Her assistant Yvette was very rude at some point after I told them I was going to do a bad review for ignoring me the whole time. She said she couldn't contact me because I was in jail, but I did called her many times living a massage with the person answering calls.. not until yesterday finally she emailed me just because I told them about the review.. They thought I was very naive & ignorant, just because I couldn't do anything for 4 months that I was just waiting for the lawyer to talk to me! read more

Melissa is an amazing lawyer and the best I've ever used. She is compassionate, smart and wins. I highly recommend to anyone.

I hired Melissa in 2022 to handle my divorce. My ex husband had offered a settlement to me before I hired her. I hired her to give me legal options as I did not want to blindly accept a settlement proposal that may not represent my best interest. There were no temporary orders stated in the offer and I made it clear to Melissa on a number of occasions I felt unsafe and wanted legal protection from my narcissistic and abusive ex. She told me temporary orders would negate the settlement offer. I told her my ex was threatening me, and I wanted a restraining order. her response to my request was to forward my email to my husbands counsel. As a result, my ex became more aggravated and hostile, blocking me from communication so I had no idea where he was, if and when he would be showing up at one of our shared properties. He also cut me off of all credit cards at this point and we shared no bank accounts, I was completely reliant on him to survive financially, Melissa knew this. He wasn't paying my bills or living expenses so i was forced to burn through my personal savings, Melissa never insisted on temporary orders. She didn't care about my safety or my ability to survive financially through the pending divorce. I called the office a number of times and Melissa was always "in court". Her staff is passive aggressive and condescending. One of her paralegals at one point told me, "Melissa is very busy helping her clients with important matters like child custody and reuniting children with parents ". Considering I have no children, her comment was very hurtful to me and felt discriminatory in nature. Her office also refused to send me billable hour updates. Her excuse was that she is a small business and doesn't have staff to document and notify clients of billable hours. She is lazy, unresponsive and she is not an advocate for women. She made it clear throughout my divorce it was more important to her to maintain rapport with my husbands counsel and defer to him on all matters than perform her fiduciary duty to act in my best interest. She's more interested in trying to be a part of the"boys club" and is desperate to be well liked and taken seriously by her peers so they can team up together and bill both you and your spouse. Do yourself a favor and hire someone will actually try to help you, be responsive, update you on billable hours, and ensure your safety. read more

I put my trust into Melissa as a family recommendation, I work for a litigation law Firm and could have used several recommendations from there but chose to stick with my family recommendation. You will see several 5 star reviews and several 1 star reviews. I do think it is human to blame your attorney for a result they didn't like even if they did everything in their power. I was in a very dark period in life and really needed help, I had no idea what to expect or even what to do. Melissa never really explained anything to me, only the result after it was too late. She gave me an estimated cost at the start of the matter and even though I can account for some of the hours over what was estimated due to personal mistakes it was way over what I was told. Her communication was very poor to the point even after thousands of dollars were spent I had to give up everything in my divorce matter to resolve and move on. At the end when I dictated the terms to her, I asked her to spend a fixed amount of time on the finalization and no more, she still didn't listen to me not only claimed to spend more time on the matter but then had the audacity to request more money after she was given more retainer and asked to not go over that in a matter where I gave up everything due to her lack of communication, slow response or handling other clients. I do think she is a good attorney, know the laws and how to enforce them in a court of law, her office does has a very kind paralegal that explained more to me than she did. As I was told after her withdraw, Attorneys don't like to sue other attorneys. I found several billing errors, her office calculated the CSW incorrectly costing me even more $$$. but was told I would be better off eating the cost. I have since represented myself, I was able to go back to court and gain 50/50 of my kids. I am preparing to file a redistribution of assets in my matter on my own. Melissa is aware that I was an unhappy client and to this day she has not reached out to make things right read more

Melissa and her team were fantastic during my divorce case. From the first call Melissa and I had she was nothing but patient, professional, and straightforward. She took additional time to explain and clarify things for me and what to expect from the process - she truly wants what is in the best interest of her clients. Melissa, Yvette, and Katherine were prompt in their responses and kept me informed every step of the way. I am grateful to have had their guidance and support throughout the entire process. read more

The quality of work was amazing, Melissa helped me when I was in an emergency situation with child custody. She also has some amazing paralegals that helped out. You get what you pay for and when it comes to my kids I was willing to pay for the best!! read more

Melissa Schroeder practices with no ethical concerns. She hid evidence of an appraisal on a marital property, filed false reports stating that my ex made $35,000 a year when his military retirement alone was over $110,000 - ridiculous because his taxes showed what he really made, and her emails to my lawyer were unprofessional - using the language of a disgruntled child on the playground. In the end, it all worked to my benefit, but you may want to think twice before retaining her as your lawyer. read more

When I was served with divorce, I was shocked, saddened, lost and devastated, just like many others I'm sure. To say confused is an understatement. I phone interviewed 3 attorneys and Melissa clearly stood out. She actually met me on a weekend to understand my situation! Her calm demeanor, ethical nature, excellent ear and ability to take a very complex problem and simplify it made it much easier to understand what path makes most sense, resulting in a calmer state. She responds with the appropriate levels to a need for the situation. That trust she built never waivers, always working in your and the kiddos best interest of the situation. Because of all the complexities of child custody and divorce, following her advice and direction has resulted in best situational outcomes but you need to let her lead the situation as she quite frankly, does know best and works to meet court appointed dates - which can mean she's working on other cases before yours as they are due sooner - nothing more. Costs have always been clearly detailed. Although not cheap, you get what you pay for and with dividends. Need to consider this is an investment in your and the kids future not just a transaction for the moment to get divorced, keep that in mind. Don't overthink this part, give her a chance, you won't regret it. read more

I should have trusted the reviews. Everything the reviews said were absolutely correct. Melissa does not care about you or anything you have going on. She is all about the money. Whenever I would reach out to Melissa, it would take days sometimes a over a week for her to get back in contact with me, but whenever my ex wife demanded something Melissa made sure to inform me of that the same day. She would tell me that we need to pick our battles. She suggested that I give into my ex wife demands for now. I am a father trying to get more time with my children. She is very unprofessional and rude. After I told her she was fired, then I somehow owed her another $1000 dollars. She never told me that my retainer was exhausted. Please read all of the reviews on yelp and on google, and see that every negative review basically says the same thing. In other reviews she states that if there is a billing issue they try to correct it. She told me that she would basically take me to court if I do not pay this additional fee. Do not use her by any means. read more

Absolutely terrible i would really like to know how she can still practice law. No communication she absolutely will not return calls on the rare chance you do actually get ahold of her good luck getting any kind of helpful answer she charged me 4700 dollars for approximately 2 hours worth the work to file a motion and then quit and had the audacity to try and say I still owed her money. read more

I would not recommend Melissa as a divorce attorney. Melissa was inattentive to details that almost cost me additional thousands of dollars. She failed to provide me with guidance and/or explain my options, failed to advocate for me, and several occasions I had to prompt her to follow through with what she said she was going to do. Even though she had poor communication skills, her fees were expensive. If you are looking for a good divorce attorney, I would suggest you look elsewhere. read more

Melissa is EXCELLENT! She is caring, understanding, and passionate about helping her clients! She does her job well and the results have been very positive. I appreciate that she is prompt in responding to me and keeps me up to date on the progress of my case. I am so glad that she is my attorney; I do not know where we would be without her! read more