Christopher R. Rao - Seattle, WA

Among life’s mistakes, I’ve made some doozies. The second biggest one? Hiring Christopher Rao of Beacon Attorneys. While skiing in 2017, I suffered a traumatic brain injury. Months later in his waiting room, I pondered Christopher’s vintage photo of a train wreck. A jaded metaphor for my once-hopeful marriage? — no this was about what I still had coming. Christopher presented his credentials. Graduated from Harvard… specialized in game theory… leader of the county bar association’s family law section… he’s in my neighborhood… How could I go wrong? After I retained Christopher, I learned he’d recently fallen out with his legal partner (hence the name change from “Rao and Pierce”). In the transition, the support staff were in flux and disarray. Early on, his team neglected to file critical documents. They made an embarrassing factual error about my son. To my repeated requests they were often nonresponsive. I harangued them to complete my will. Throughout, we let opposing counsel drive a simplistic narrative. “We’re keeping our powder dry,” Christopher would tell me. He did object to the judge about OC’s page counts…. Our court orders? all drafted by OC. We lost and we lost, and each time Christopher declared some small victory. And he’d regularly criticize me. “I’m tough on my clients,” he’d tell me. Regularly I wondered if I’d hired an adversary, not an advocate. From other reviewers I’m seeing I’m not alone in this. Two years and about $100K later we withdrew, and Christopher’s long-suffering assistant wrote to me, “Thank you for being you, for being kind, caring and never being afraid to express your emotions. You will always be one of my favorite clients.” Divorce is already too traumatic. Much as I empathize with his staff, I suggest that you avoid Christopher Rao.