Mello & Pickering LLP

Went through a divorce and need legal representation. Traci was recommend through a friend of a friend as being a strong and effective lawyer. I felt confident with Traci and her abilities from the first consultation. She is very thorough and let me know my options and always felt I was more than adequately represented.
She was always very conscious of my financial situation and never did anything unnecessarily regarding my case and was extremely efficient by using support staff when my case didn’t warrant her immediate attention.
Traci (and staff) are wonderful to deal with, friendly and empathetic. I retained her one more time after the divorce was final to enforce items from the MSA which were not being followed through on. The outcome of the divorce and the follow-​up enforcement met all my expectations.
Nobody wants to seek legal help if they can avoid it… but I would highly recommend Traci and the staff at MELLO & PICKERING, LLP for any family law issues that you may need representation for.

A colleague in my office recommended Tracy Pickering. Tracy served as my consulting attorney during my divorce. She also helped me select a mediator, as my soon to be X and I chose to use that route as we had very little to disagree about (or we thought). Tracy helped me understand my rights and pointed out issues that could be a problem going forward. She was always available either by phone or email and her response time was absolutely amazing. She is a strong woman and helped me be strong during this difficult time. She is efficient as is her office and very pleasant to be around. I highly recommend Tracy or anyone in her office.

DONE! finally divorced! with the help of Arlette Argyris! She’s not only professional, friendly, but beyond knowledgable!
I originally saw Jennifer Mello and she was awesome as well!
They worked with me despite my financial constraints and made it do-​able for me to have attorney guided help during this process. They gave great advice and worked with me to understand the legal part of things; which can be quite cumbersome.
I would highly recommend their offices if needing family law assistance.
Janel and Franchesca are assets as well!
Thank you all! So thrilled after a year and a half things are finalized thanks to you all!

I did my homework before hiring Traci Pickering to be my lawyer. I wanted someone who would help me reach a settlement without getting into a protracted legal battle. I also wanted someone who could handle things if we ended up in a protracted legal battle. I got just what I was looking for. Traci listened to me, provided great perspective. I will recommend Traci and her team to any friends who find themselves in a similar situation.

Traci Pickering was the 4^th attorney I used during a difficult divorce and she was absolutely by far the best and I just wish I had found her earlier in the process. She explained my legal situation, what was feasible and what was not. She listened to my goals and helped me achieve them. She was incredibly knowledgeable, would provide great guidance and insight but was also pragmatic, which led to a great resolution for me. She is the consummate professional and negotiated in a fair, firm but non confrontational way so things didn’t spiral out of control. I honestly don’t believe I could have gotten the reasonable and timely outcome if it wasn’t for her. I went back to her every year for child support adjustments and she was just as efficient and helpful with that too.
I cannot say enough good things about Traci and her team, they were everything I needed in legal representation and are really nice people too! I have recommended her to two of my friends and they also had a great experience and sung her praises too.

I recently was served with divorce papers for what I thought would be a simple divorce. However, my ex decided to ask for as much as she could get, and I knew I needed solid representation.
Traci immediately took my case and explained the situation. She did an excellent job of clearly telling me where I stand and detailing my rights, my ex’s rights, and what she needed from me. After the initial handoff of documents, the process went very smoothly, even with a few back-​n-​forth complications from the other attorney, and I was quickly brought to a finalized settlement that worked well for both of us.
During the case, Traci also had me work with Arlette on a few smaller issues, and both attorneys were always very professional and efficient, and at the same time very personable and caring towards my predicament. I never felt like my time or money were wasted, and I felt like the guidance and advice given were thoughtful and valuable.
I’m giving 5-​stars because overall, they turned a bad experience into a positive learning experience that I won’t forget.

Overall rating
5 star rating Excellent
Trustworthy
5.0 star rating Excellent
Responsive
5.0 star rating Excellent
Knowledgeable
5.0 star rating Excellent
Kept me informed
4.0 star rating Good
I recommend Jennifer Mello. and Mz Pickering
I used Jennifer 6+ months ago.
Jennifer handled my Family matter.
I have previously worked with no lawyers.
Jennifer and the rest of her firm are awesome.
They kept a woman with a mental illness from taking my son away. When the other party went below the belt, they kept it pro and beat it out. They helped the judge see through the lies and showed the truth on both sides.
Words cannot express my gratitude to all of them.
As a man it was empowering to have an office staffed entirely by women come to your side.
It was a huge relief when they told me that i had way more rights that I thought. Totally changed my attitude. I only wish i’d contacted them sooner. Probably would’ve saved me a lot of time and money if I’d been informed early on.
I didn’t always follow their recommendations and wish i had. This caused some more work for everybody.
My only tips to a future client would be to work on clairty. Pre-​game and post-​game before and after to know what to expect.
Having never been to court before, I wish I’d made it a point to go sit in on a public hearing before my first one. Just to know what to expect.
Also, Text messages. There are ways to get them off your phone (software like Phoneview for mac) There was one specific text message that absolutely turned the tide. I missed it, but Jennifer caught it.
They ain’t cheap, but every day i see my son is worth every penny.

I have to first say that Mello and Pickering did help me make progress in gaining joint legal custody of my daughter – and also helped increase my time-​share as well. My child is the most important aspect of my life – and hiring representation was the only way to navigate through the system.
Pros:
–For the most part the staff was competent
–They filed all paper-​work promptly
–Most of the attornies seemed to have a good grasp on family law, as expected
Cons:
–I had to work with 3 separate attornies (the initial attorney went on maternity leave – which made me wonder why she was put on the case) through-​out the process
–It cost about $ 7,000 (apparently my case was simple) in less than 3 months – some phone calls were around $ 150 – and to show up in court for an hour was $ 600.00
–I felt I was asked to go to hearings unnecessarily – which cost a lot of $$
–Once my retainer was up – I felt like the lawyers were bill collectors, which was awkward
Over-​all, like I said, Mello and Pickering helped me make progress – but I truly feel like $ 7,000 is an absurd sum of money for the work put into my case… if mine was simple, i’d hate to see the bill on a complicated case. I decided to finish the process on my own – and move forward without their representation – we had another hearing scheduled for late Feb – but seriously, by that time, i’d have been paying around $ 10,000.
I would never feel like an ethical person/​business charging people this amount of money – but parents are forced to get lawyers as the family law system is really disorganized/​confusing. I truly feel bad for fathers/​mothers who can’t afford bloated fees and simply want to have an equitable agreement with the other parent. I urge anyone looking for legal counsel to check-​in with as many lawyers as possible before choosing one… all are pretty costly, but I feel maybe there’s firms that will treat their clients better.
In the future – I hope never to have to jump into the family law realm again – and that my daughters mother and I can move forward more civially. I would most likely not return to M & P as a client.

Please keep in mind my experience happened on or around — Thursday, August 19, 2010 10:57 AM.
I mention this in all fairness. (Perhaps they have changed?!)
My experience was not good here.
For $ 2,500+ I really didn’t get anything here except aggravated.
They prepared an initial response (Divorce) but never filed it.
After I fired the Firm, they charged me another $ 150 for administrative fees.
When I politely asked them to waive this extra charge (Since they really didn’t do anything, or to meet me half way /​waive half of the $ 150) my request was denied.
When I went to the self-​help area after this experience (Santa Clara Legal Help on Notre Dame) they mentioned that not filing a response was a «Rookie Mistake» …
In the end I paid $ 2,650 to speak with the Firm, trade a few emails, and have them prepare a response only for them not to file it with the court clerk and squeeze me for another $ 150…
My overall experience = terrible.