Reviews

I hired Mikal a second time to handle motions from my ex. I wrote a 5-star review in 2014 (“Honest & Trustworthy”) after he handled my divorce & custody case. 11 years later, I’m back to update that to 1-star. Not because I can’t give 0 stars, but because he did earn 1 star by virtue of being the lawyer to escort my case through the judicial system. But that’s all I can give him credit for, other than false hope and an empty savings account. Semi-recently my ex filed motions to reduce child support despite earning more presently. In the consultation, Mikal regaled stories of non-residential parents filing to reduce support, thinking they would benefit, only for it to backfire. He said mine was a simple case, he wanted to collect some documents and see what we were dealing with. He was clear that nothing is guaranteed (obviously), but that he thought I was in a halfway decent position. That is the only phone call I’ve had with him, 1 year ago, days before I retained him. The only emails I’ve received from him were last summer regarding getting my discovery together. I’ve received not one email, phone call, carrier pigeon, to talk about my case since our consult (other than ‘court recaps’). So not one interaction to discuss the nuances in my case or to request materials from myself that would help him in court. Not to ask any questions or to get any details. At no point during our official legal relationship has he offered advice, guidance, or counsel. I cannot provide a single instance of him advocating for me. What all am I paying $400/hr for? Any lawyer can walk paperwork through the courts. He’s not even requesting that we use my ex’s current income to reflect his recent raises. Every ball there was to drop, he dropped. We did have one scheduled call prior to the pretrial conference with the judge in December. His assistant sent me an email in November to let me know and I marked it down. Appointment comes and goes with no call. This phone call was essential because this is the call he said we would discuss strategy. Court date comes and goes, and I finally get a barebones email from Mikal. He claimed he didn’t call because I did not reply and confirm the phone appointment…. which I was never asked to confirm. A phone call this important?! So court happens, then Mikal sent me a partial update to give me the next court date and said the recap would be sent “separately.” It never was. Because I hadn’t heard anything alarming leading up to the Dec & Jan court dates, I had no reason to be concerned and figured “no news was good news.” Naively, I thought a lawyer charging $400/hour would call or email with case updates/questions/clarifications throughout the case…. anything!! But especially if the entire case took a 180* turn from our initial consult. In January I reached out to his assistant (CC’d him), who turned out to no longer be working there. That was a few days before my January court date. He never replied or got back to me until a week later, after said court date, stating “I’m sorry you’re disappointed in my services,” which is a terrible non-apology apology. Then blamed “his health challenges” for the poor communication. This is a garbage elementary excuse. If your profession is in legal, and you are so ill that it is affecting your job performance across months to years, you need to take FMLA. It’s not the client’s job to be making sure you are doing it and that you’re well enough to do it competently. The answer to Mikal’s problem here certainly isn’t to continue charging Gucci prices for Kmart services, while gaslighting his clients about it. It seems Mikal saw my case as little more than billable hours. Is $15k + $8k lawyers’ fees only a lot of money to me? He would have you thinking so. This cost more than my entire divorce. If you don’t want to go $22k+ in the red, find someone else. Coming from somebody who has hired him twice, over a decade apart.

Hired him for a divorce case. Does not return calls advice that I received on initial consultation has wrecked havoc on my bank acct. If your case is complicated do not hire. Just a bad experience all around. Gaslighting was the norm for duration of case. Save your money & time. During one of the most difficult times in ones life, sympathy and compassion is zero. I wish I would have been more informed about his ability before hiring.

Mikal is fair, diplomatic, diligent, compassionate, and extremely thorough. I was surprised at how well he was able to assess all aspects of parenting issues and decipher between individual positioning vs fact patterns. Throughout the emotionally draining process of having a GAL and weeks of trial I felt confident that Mikal was following the truth of the matter and advocating for the best interest of my daughter. Mikal is there for the kids and his focus/energy stands up for that through and through. In the worst of circumstances, I could not have had a better experience. Thankful and grateful!

I cannot speak highly enough about Mikal and his team. I met with numerous lawyers, and ever fired a lawyer before I finally found Mikal. I knew when I met him that he was organized, professional and actually going to help me through a very stressful divorce. We worked very well together and he did everything he could to help me. He took the time to understand my case, gave great legal advice that always made sense to me, and listened to me and my concerns. His paperwork was always thorough and it was easy to connect with him to make sure we were on the same page. His pre-trial memo was incredibly detailed as were all of the motions we filed. l I always felt like he had my back and that he cared. Going through a divorce is beyond stressful, it's your life in the hands of two attorneys and a judge. It's a very scary reality and I trusted Mikal 100%. I am beyond happy with the conclusion of my case. I am so grateful to Mikal and his team (Cathy and Riann) who helped guide me through each phase of my divorce. I highly recommend Mikal and his firm.

I went through a divorce in 2016 and Mikal made the process super easy with minimal amount of stress, which was great considering the divorce gave me plenty of that! Fast acting, great service with a little bit of emotional support to add to that. I really couldn’t of had a better lawyer who really helped me get through a tough time. If ever in the future I may require a family lawyer, without a doubt it’s going to be Mikal Stole.

I was very disappointed in my experience with Mikal. It would regularly take over a week to get an answer or a call back, and at one point even went over 2 and a half weeks to get a call back. This really slowed down the process. The advice that I was given by Mikal that certain things is now coming back to bite me on tax returns. Overall it was not a good experience, and I would not recommend.

Mikal is an excellent attorney that knows when it is worthwhile to fight for something and when it is to be an expensive endeavor with little return on investment. He attempts to avoid anything that will cause excessive fees. This can come across as if he is not engaged, but that is not the case. He is clear in giving his opinion for your best option. The only cons are he is sometimes too concise and doesn't always give a full explanation as to why he believes one option is better than another and he doesn't needlessly touch base which can make you feel out of touch during the process at times. Once you understand, it is no longer a con. I believe Mikal gives you a no nonsense and clear vision of what to expect and I highly recommend him.

I would highly recommend Mikal as a divorce attorney. He is smart, patient and in my experience he will help you make difficult decisions as he keeps your best interest in mind. I defiantly felt confident having Mikal represent me, he always answered my questions big or small and helped to make things go as smoothly as possible! He is very trustworthy, which seems rare these days.

Mikal handled my divorce and two years after finalizing, he still represents me. I was going to make a list of pros and cons but I honestly can't find any cons. Trust - I am a naturally anxious person and Mikal is great at guiding me, telling me what to expect as far as my case goes, what I can expect from a judge or opposing counsel. I can tell him what I hope to gain, he will inform me of reasonable expectations, and then I can trust to put it in his hands and let him take care of it. Occasionally he seemed rather negative, but with time I have learned he is simply helping me to expect the worst but hope for the best. When there are ongoing issues he lays low and quietly collects information. At first it seemed like he didn't care, but I later learned that he pays a lot of attention to detail, quietly, so that when the court date comes, he can walk into court like a tiger. We have 'won' several arguments in court as a result of him laying low, collecting information and not making a big deal of things until we are in front of the judge. It is almost like a 'surprise attack' on my ex in court. Responsiveness - I gave 4/5 here for only one reason. There are times when I do not get a response to emails. However, I believe this is for good reason. Looking back, they are often emails that were repetitive or something we later covered in a scheduled teleconference. I believe he didn't respond to these emails simply to save his time and my money. Outside of that, I always get a detailed response and my questions are thoroughly covered. Knowledge - Mikal gets five stars because if he feels shaky on his knowledge, he will consult the other lawyers in the firm and get back to me in a timely manner. As I said previously, he always keeps me informed as to what to expect from judges and opposing counsel. I would MUCH prefer he admit when his knowledge is shaky and consult with the firm rather than BSing me to appear more knowledgeable. Kept informed - Mikal sends me periodic updates on issues going on. Occasionally I have had to check in on something but it is always for good reason so I did not dock him for this. Overall, he is a great lawyer. I plan to continue using him as long as I need legal representation.