Elise Buie Family Law, PLLC

I cannot express enough gratitude for Kate Stapleton and Marissa Clauss. Facing a complex and high-stakes family law matter, their steady leadership, meticulous preparation, and clear strategy made all the difference. Kate’s courtroom advocacy and child-focused approach produced an outstanding, clear-cut result for my family. Marissa kept the process seamless and organized every step of the way. I am forever thankful for their dedication and highly recommend this team to anyone facing a critical legal fight.

★☆☆☆☆ I deeply regret hiring this law firm, and I cannot recommend them. My case involved family law, immigration issues, child custody, and allegations of domestic abuse. It was an extremely serious and time-sensitive matter, and I expected responsive communication, a clear legal strategy, and strong advocacy. Instead, my experience was incredibly disappointing. Both my attorney and her assistant were consistently difficult to reach. Emails often went unanswered for days and sometimes for more than a week. I frequently had to send multiple follow-up emails just to receive a response. Throughout my representation, I never saw a clear legal strategy. I often felt that my position was not being actively advocated for and that my concerns and evidence were not receiving the attention they deserved. From my perspective, there was no meaningful progress in my case while I was represented by this firm. By the time of the Motion for Temporary Orders, I had not seen any meaningful advancement resulting from my attorney’s work. Despite paying approximately $20,000 in legal fees, I felt that I received little more than consultations, email exchanges with opposing counsel, and communication with an immigration attorney. No agreements were reached, and I did not feel that my case moved forward in any meaningful way. What stood out most was that I was reminded about the firm’s billing system far more often than I received meaningful updates, strategic advice, or proactive legal work. It often felt as though billing was a higher priority than representing the client’s interests. Changing attorneys was one of the best decisions I made. If you are facing a complex, high-conflict family law matter involving child custody, immigration, or domestic abuse, I strongly encourage you to carefully evaluate your options before hiring this firm. Unfortunately, one star is the lowest rating available. Based on my personal experience, I would not give this firm even one star if that were possible. My recommendation is simple: Run, Forrest, Run. Save your time, your money, and your peace of mind. There are many attorneys who are responsive, strategic, and genuinely committed to protecting their clients’ interests. Based on my experience, this firm was not one of them. This review reflects my personal experience and opinion.

She was listening, but then she just hung up on me after hearing my voice. Such a rude experience, very poor customer service.

Edit: Since Elise decided to respond to my review by shifting blame to the court, despite her highly biased report being the only and sole catalyst to said ‘court’ decision, despite the judge admitting the decision being a tragedy but out of their hands due to said highly biased report, if you want ‘deeply painful’ outcomes for you and your children, while being bled dry financially, hire Elise. She clearly has learned nothing from her destruction. When I say I have met and bonded with multiple women who have had their lives destroyed by Elise I am not exaggerating. They are too afraid to leave honest reviews but I’m not any more. I’m leaving this review on behalf of all the lives ruined by Elise.

Elise destroyed my family and my children’s and my life. Don’t walk away, run! As fast as you possibly can!! She manipulated, ignored and omitted information to fit her preferred narrative and in the end she realized her mistakes but refused to own them in court in order to save her own face. Please, I’m begging you to stay away from anything even remotely associated to her. The people who have been severely and negatively impacted by her (I’ve spoken to several) are too afraid to write reviews.

After a bad experience with a previous attorney, I hired Elise Buie Law Firm in July 2025, hoping the steep cost would guarantee a seamless, high-quality experience. Unfortunately, it did not.

I was charged heavily for the firm to reorganize documents I had already organized, yet they refused to explain their formatting requirements. Communication was incredibly poor; I was denied periodic updates under the claim that my billing structure didn't cover them. Worse, just three months before my January 2026 trial date, the firm moved the trial out an additional six months without consulting me. When I questioned this, I was told that because I hadn't yet paid a $30k trial retainer, I had "no say" in keeping the date. On top of this, I was billed for "review time" before every single meeting for material they should have already been familiar with.

My case was straightforward—I simply wanted to get to arbitration—but the firm dragged it out until I was forced to switch counsel. Despite their marketing, I never received the "boutique" experience I signed up for. I felt entirely uncared for, seemingly because my net worth didn't match their typical clientele. I highly recommend looking elsewhere.