Andrea Badalucco - Southfield, MI

I'm sure most divorcees don't have great things to say about their ex wife's legal council but I have to share my experience! My ex retained Andrea Badalucco with Foster Swift to assist her with our divorce. If you ask my ex wife now what she thinks about her experience with Andrea and her newbie protege Benjamin Williams...her exact quote is "I would definitely have done things differently!" Andrea and Ben are rogue attorneys. Just to name a few things that happened during our divorce which took just under 1 year....First, they sent nearly 20 subpoenas to my family and friends without notifying my ex that they were being sent and prior to the date I had to provide discovery. Imagine my 73 year old father's reaction when a certified letter is sent to his home requiring a signature. They even subpoenaed our parenting time specialist.....by doing so, I was able to get a copy of all of my ex's private emails to the counselor. Andrea and Ben filed frivolous motions regularly which required both myself, my ex and our attorneys to show up at the courthouse every Wednesday so that she could run that billable clock. Andrea even went as far as stating in an email to my attorney (that I have a copy of) that she told my ex to secretly record me which is a Felony! The judge had to sign a motion declaring that my ex was not to secretly record me in our marital home and my car.....CRAZY! During one of our Zoom meetings with Judge McDonald, Andrea was literally yelling at the judge......I was sitting there thinking to myself please keep yelling....and once again, it ended in my favor. Andrea and Ben both refused to take action even with direct requests from my ex wife. At one point, my ex and I were in our living room and we agreed on something. I sent a text to my attorney who in turn sent an email to Andrea. Andrea responded to the email stating that my ex doesn't agree (I have the email). I don't think attorneys are supposed to say their clients don't agree to something unless they actually ask them. After all of the chaos I did a little more investigating and Andrea has a well known reputation in the family law sphere.....she is known as the attorney who doesn't have the best fiduciary instincts but instead cares more about those billable hours. The best part of the whole process was that we agreed to a partial settlement agreement after one of our mediation sessions. It was a proposal from Andrea, Ben and my ex wife. Everyone executed the agreement. 2 days later, Andrea sends an email to the mediator asking for clarification on the agreement which he provided. Apparently Andrea & Ben didn't understand what she had my ex sign and then requested arbitration. More billable hours for arbitration and AGAIN, the results were in my favor (I felt that this was blatant malpractice). The arbitrator said that she should have asked questions if she had them before she had her client sign the agreement. Seems like some pretty solid representation! Lastly, at every mediation, my ex told me that Andrea and Ben advised her to not agree to the mediator's suggestions and wanted to take it all the way to a hearing with the judge. We did finally settle a few weeks before our hearing date. During that mediation session we discussed legal fees. My ex was just under $100,000 and I was at just over $35,000. The mediator said he thought that her fees were certainly above what would be considered normal or customary and he felt that the judge would agree. If you want attorneys who love to bill and create division rather than seek amicable resolutions, Andrea &perfect options!