Reviews

A fantastic attorney, has been flexible, communicative and invested in my case and the wellbeing of my children. Easily accessible to his clients, always ensures I am well informed and included in all decisions going forward. Doesn’t sugar coat things or provide false hope. Makes a plan going forward and follows through quickly. Divorce and custody battles are hard enough. Ryan provides results and peace of mine that are more than worth his retainer. His legal assistant is also very friendly and approachable.

A con artists with a law degree , that's how I feel after meeting Ryan E. Cooke. I met with this man on 3/23/21 for a consultation after having talked to him for 45 minutes over the phone on 3/22/21. Ryan said he would charge me 1500 flat rate for all proceeding in family court until case resolves' and 1000 for trial, if it had to go to trial. I told him I was out of work and he said he would help me out. the contract that he gave me to review was in fact anything but helpful and in it stated the complete opposite of what we agreed to verbally. His contract is a two page robbery and leads people to a road of bankruptcy quickly , asking his clients to pay 1500 monthly with an additionally 10 percent interest charged on the 15th day of each month if you are late -is he a bank? and he charges these fees until case concludes. If you are going to charge people fees you should do it honestly and up front and charge those who have the money to give. I'm so happy I dogged this bullet and did not get into contact with this crooked attorney because Ryan E Cooke is a Crookie ,and you've been warned!

Ryan is unprofessional and crude to interact with. He made many costly mistakes in my case. He missed filing dates, gave questionable legal advice. You will not save money with Ryan Cooke. In the long run it will likely cost you more time and money, at best.

He told me that i was not entittled to my husband 401k and that we can estimate how much he gets without figure from my X 401k got upset and said i should get another attorney prove to me he was very rude was on the side of my X husbands attorney because they were high power attorneys, he took everything i said as a joke and nothing he said never worked out as he said i had to seek another attorney and fire him

When first looking for an attorney in Albany within my limited financial means, a colleague and "friend" of Mr. Cooke's told me that I would be better off going with a public defender. This turned out to be true, but I had been advised by friends and family that even potentially sub-par representation would be better than none, so I hired Ryan. Ryan constantly spoke at length about his connections with other lawyers and city officials that turned out to be completely untrue or gross, egregious exaggerations. Apparently he thought I would never fact-check his nonsense, even though it was pretty transparent that he was all bravado. It was next to impossible to keep him on a relevant subject; he would provide unsolicited hypothetical scenarios that were totally unhelpful (e.g. “If your case was being processed in x county” or “Now, if this incident had occurred in [some other city], blablaba”). It was infuriating and seemed like a feeble attempt to appear more knowledgeable than he actually was. If you ask him a straightforward question, he will somehow find a way to answer every question BUT the one you actually asked. Perhaps he's accustomed to dealing with uneducated people who don't recognize a smokescreen. This is where it went from simply annoying to a clear indication of disorganization and professional neglect. Just one example: he straight up lied several times about having “extensive” experience with a woman in charge of an influential institution in Troy, even providing gratuitous details about their professional and personal relationship. I found this to be a very concerning lie when I spoke with her and she stated that she had only worked with him ONE other time and it was abundantly clear that she barely knew him. Why lie about something like that? He led me to believe that certain outcomes for my case were entirely possible - even probable - and then would completely flip and act like he had never said those things. In short, he delivered on literally nothing he set out to do in my case. There is a big difference between being cautiously optimistic and setting unrealistic expectations for your client. If it had just been a few times that his words weren’t truthful, I would have chalked it up to his attempt to inspire hope in me; it was, however, purely irresponsible and misleading. I don’t think he was attempting to be deliberately unethical or malicious, but in terms of hiring effective legal counsel, this man was anything but.

This lawyer is very unprofessional when dealing with separation cases. He uses personal opinions in very crude and rude ways. He is very oblivious to the things he says. For an example he said to myself that if his wife or significant other ran into the arms of another man he would repossess her car and go after the man with a gun. Ryan said this in a public area before going into court and other attorneys heard and turned heads to look at him. Why would you want a man like this represent you. Please think twice before contacting this man. I repeat again and stress this...he is very unprofessional and shows up late to court. Please contact another attorney if you want good represenation.

Ryan helped me get back custody of my two boys. Very patient with me and kept me posted the whole way about his plans to win my case. Younger lawyer but he definitely knows his stuff. Great staff too!

Ryan is very accessible. He will take the time during consultation. He will return your calls. In my case, he claimed he could get results that he did not deliver. I meet with Ryan. I brought relevant documents and informed him honestly of the details of my Family Court case. I was told he would take clearly defined actions to support my case. In short, it did not happen. If fact, I arrived at court to have the Judge reject my request for Temporary Relief do to my petition for of lacking supporting documents. I proceed only to find that when I need to file further petition, I was told to take care of my self. I was also informed any evidence need to support my case, I would have to get any evidence my self. Ryan was in over his head here. I am not suggesting he unethical. He lacks experience. And he sets his price only to realize that the case require too much effort. In this instance Ryan was clearly informed that it would be complex , difficult and go to trail. He wanted to show up and hope the respondent did something foolish on Facebook. Or maybe exchange proposal letters with the respondent's lawyer. You get what you pay for. Do not waste your money here. It will end cost you much more.

Ryan is not that great as a family lawyer. His lack experience shows. He is great about taking your calls, Just do not expect any time action to be taken. In family court enviroment he will show up and go through the motions. Just do ask him to file one to further your case. He instruct his clients to do his duties for him. These others reviews are wildly miss leading.

From the start Ryan was compassionate and committed, making it clear that he would do his absolute best to help us win and that's exactly what he did. Ryan went above and beyond and got us exactly what we were asking for - paternal custody- during an extremely ugly custody battle. I ended up walking away with full custody of my daughter thanks to Ryan's knowledgeable decisions, actions, and angles. He really tackled our case as an expert and presented it to the judge in just the right way. His staff was amazing, especially the woman at the front desk, she was so sweet every time we were there. We would definitely recommend Ryan to anyone in need of legal services in a child custody case. Thank you so much Ryan.

It was a absolute pleasure to have Mr Cooke represent me, he was everything i can possible ask for in a attorney The staff in his office were professional caring and friendly I highly reccommend him to anyone looking for a lawyer.

Mr Cooke was very straight forward with me and very honest with me. He helped me understand the rules of our justice system, he was very informative, he contacted me when he said he would. He answered my questions whether they were the answers I wanted to hear or not. He was very knowledgeable about the family court laws. I would highly recommend Mr. Cooke to anyone.