Bill is one of the most respected and reputable lawyers in Travis and surrounding counties. I’ve not only had the privilege to work with him but also having him as a mentor throughout my legal career. I would highly recommend Bill to anyone looking for a lawyer who can handle complex property division, custody litigation as well as a mediator for high conflict family law cases.

Terrible service

I have had the privilege of working with this law firm for the last 7 years with my child custody case. I will never use another attorney in Austin Texas. They are trustworthy, honest, extremely hard working not to mention knowledgeable and well known in the legal community.. Truly one of a kind. I also would like to comment on the staff. Throughout the long battle I have never encountered an attorney or there staff who do not exemplify excellence. They are fabulous and I’m so grateful to have them to answer all my questions.

Went to work and helped me finish my divorce quickly. They were empathetic to my situation and gave me logically advice.

My custody case took almost 2 years which involved two other attorneys before I found Bill ending in a successful judgement after an all day trial. Bill and his right hand person, Chris, were masterful. I didn't always understand his advice along the way but looking back everything he advised and did was perfect. Bill Powers is hands down the BEST family law firm in the Austin area!
— Clay Bridwell

This is a first class firm that has had my back and resolved issues more than I want to admit! I recommend Bill to everyone.

Beware of being billed for far more hours than you requested.

If you have a smaller task such as reviewing an existing prenup draft, I’d steer clear of this office and find an attorney who will do the work for a flat fee you negotiate ahead of time. I am sure there are options for local attorneys that are far more above board about their costs and that will follow your requests.

I worked with Jamie Kerr on reviewing an existing prenup that my fiancee’s attorney had drafted. I had already reviewed the agreement myself and we had gone through a few revisions with my fiancee’s attorney before I was ready to find my own attorney to do a review for me.

I had never worked with an attorney before, and I was uncomfortable with depositing a $2500 retainer for something as small as a prenup review as I felt I would have little recourse if I were billed for far more hours than I wanted to spend on this review.

During our initial consult meeting we discussed the retainer and my concerns about how much this would end up costing. I asked that Jamie only spend time on major issues with the document so as to limit time spent on my review. Before agreeing to further services I requested in writing that we not use a retainer and that Jamie not spend more than an hour or so on the review without telling me that this was shaping up to be a much larger task with unexpected issues in the prenup so as to get my approval to spend more time on it. He received approval to move forward without using a retainer and I assumed got the message about how much I wanted to spend on this review.

I received a new draft of the agreement from my fiancee’s attorney with changes made based on how we decided to simplify it in the initial consult meeting with Jamie. I did exactly as Jamie requested to help him get through the review more quickly by giving him a redlined version of the new draft with Word’s track changes feature turned on so he could easily see exactly what was changed.

I was blindsided when I ended up being billed for almost six hours of work on top of the initial consult fee, so nearly $2000 for a prenup *review*. This is more than double what we paid to have the entire agreement drafted and put through several revisions, and multiple times the $500 range we’d heard of for a prenup review.

In our initial consult meeting Jamie insisted that he had no way to determine ahead of time how long this review would take. I believe he had enough information after that meeting to inform me that my request to spend another hour or so reviewing it would fall far short of how long he would likely spend on it. Not giving me realistic expectations demonstrated very poor client management.

With Jamie we did only one round of review and the agreement did not become any more complicated than what we went over together in the consult meeting. He also ignored my request to inform me that the review was taking longer than I anticipated and to ask how I would like to proceed at that point.

I attempted to call/email Jamie after receiving the bill and let him know my requests to limit the time spent on my review were ignored. Jamie was willing to no-charge about $200 of the $1500+ bill for about six hours but would not make things right by only charging even somewhat close to the amount of time I had requested be spent on my review. After that I felt obligated to share my negative experience with anyone else searching for an attorney in hopes of saving them from a similar experience.

Great attorney

This team of lawyers are experienced, intelligent, compassionate and REAL. They will give you honest information and will care about you during the process. Bill and his team are also funny and keep the otherwise painful process as enjoyable as possible. I highly recommend them.

*****
Bill is the best! He is an amazing lawyer and I have used his services multiple times. I highly recommend Bill if you want a lawyer who listens, is kind, funny, and gets your case won.

— Morgan Sherck

Bill was tough, but not at the jugular. He was strategic at what to use at deposition, and what to save for any future judge or trial. He's smart. He knows judges and other lawyers and knows how to play the game well. He was honest about what was fluff evidence and what was damning. There were times when my case/appointments were pushed back for larger cases and others' court dates - standard I guess for a small firm. He'll fight for the best deal he can get.