Company Profile
Family and Attorneys Serving West Michigan
Carpenter & Judd is a professional corporation providing legal services. Our office is in the Alger Heights Neighborhood of Grand Rapids, and has been since the firm was founded in 2004.
Our firm employs experienced paralegals and support staff. The firms practice is concentrated in the areas of family law and specialized litigation.
Our Mission
Our mission is to provide the most client-friendly legal practice possible. We aim to provide an environment that emphasizes the importance of regular communication with our clients, as well as educating our clients about all relevant laws in plain language that anyone can understand.
- Robert Carpenter
Rob Carpenter practices in the areas of Family Law, Criminal Defense, and Litigation. First admitted to practice law in 1999, he is experienced in all aspects of litigation. His clients have included Attorneys, Court employees, and Friend of the Court personnel.
Rob received his legal education at Valparaiso University School of Law, which he attended on an academic merit-based full tuition scholarship. He was awarded placement on the Law School’s Moot Court and Mock trial teams, and served as a Judicial extern with an Indiana Superior Court Judge. While still in law school, he worked as a law clerk in a Chicago area litigation firm. He earned his Juris Doctorate in 1999 and went on to score in the top 1% of all attorneys in the nation on the Multistate Bar Exam. He gained experience working as an attorney with two litigation firms in Kent County, before opening his own practice in 2004.
During the course of his career, Rob has represented clients in highly contentious child custody cases, divorces involving business valuations and complex estates, and routinely handles matters referred by other attorneys and Court staff. He has obtained acquittals after jury trials on behalf of clients facing potential life sentences, accusations of criminal sexual conduct and other difficult situations that many attorneys simply will not undertake.
Bejamin R. Judd
Benjamin R. Judd practices in the areas of Family Law, Child Abuse and Neglect, and Special Education Law including Special Needs Trusts, and Tax Law. Ben has successfully resolved cases ranging from the complex divorce and custody actions in the Circuit Courts to multistate tax actions in the Michigan Tax Tribunal.
After attending Grand Valley State University for his undergraduate degree, Ben attended Thomas M. Cooley Law School. Ben completed his legal education in just two years. While still in law school Ben worked as a law clerk at a general practice firm, where he worked on both family law cases and tax litigation. After receiving his Juris Doctorate degree, Ben passed the Michigan Bar Exam and went on to complete a Master of Laws degree in taxation.
While completing his Masters degree, Ben worked as a Law Clerk for the Michigan Tax Tribunal, and after completion of his degree, was asked to take a position as a Hearing Referee with the Tribunal. In this position, he served as a judicial referee in consumer property tax disputes. Ben also worked as a consultant and specialist with a Michigan based tax law firm.
In 2010, Ben and his wife moved to Grand Rapids, when he accepted a position with Carpenter & Judd.
Ben and his wife Melanie were married in 2005, and have two young boys, Isaac and Maxwell. Ben and Melanie are active members of Autism Support of Kent County (ASK), Parent Advisors for Special Education (PASE), and founding members of Caledonia’s “Little Scots” Parent Group.
My Approach
To the Practice of Family Law
In the simplest of terms, an attorney is a problem solver. Specifically, a client comes to the attorney with a problem and seeks the attorneys assistance in fashioning an outcome that will, from the clients perspective, solve the problem.
Generally, an attorneys assistance is required for one of two main reasons. First, the problem might require a solution that is too complex for the client to solve without the professional and/or legal experience of the attorney.
The second, and far more common reason to seek the assistance of an attorney, is that often times there is an opposing party with the same problem as the client, but with a vastly different idea of what an appropriate outcome should be. When this occurs, I must then persuade the opposing party or a judge that the outcome my client seeks is the most just. This requires a good sense of pragmatism, as well as legal knowledge and ability.
While many people say that want an attorney that is “tough” or “aggressive”, and that will “fight” for them, they often do not think about what that means. To me, being tough means finding out what my client wants, and not settling for less.
This does not necessarily involve attacking or destroying the opposite party. Often times, such an approach merely results in the parties hating each other, and lawyers making a lot of money. If I can get what my clients want by being nice, then I will be nice. If I must take a case to trial, I will be prepared and put on the best case possible – even if it involves presenting facts that the opposite party finds offensive – so long as they are relevant and have a bearing on the case.
I never lose sight of the fact that in Custody cases, the parties will still be dealing with each other, and their children will still love BOTH of their parents, long after I have moved on to other cases