Jeffrey Manuel Sydney’s Reviews

Jeff helped me to create a trust for my estate. I feel well protected and confident with the choices I made. Jeff and his staff were very thorough and professional. Thank you for making this experience positive and stress free.

Jeff is an outstanding estate planning attorney that has assisted several of my clients with their estate planning needs, and has recently done the same for me and my wife. He is incredibly thorough and is a true expert in his field. He is highly skilled in explaining complex legal issues in a way that his clients can easily understand so they can make good decisions when structuring their trusts and estate plans. I have the utmost respect for Jeff both personally and professionally.

My husband and I have separate trusts as we each have children from previous marriages. Jeff has updated them satisfactorily as our needs/tax laws have changed & affect us. We also appreciate his annual seminars updating clients on what may affect us. We have referred friends/associates to him and they also have been satisfied to work with him and his staff.

My husband and I needed to update our wills and get our estate in order. We were very fortunate in being referred to the Jeff Sydney Law Firm. We found Jeff and his staff to be efficient, knowledgeable, understanding and helpful in every way. We have already recommended Jeff to several friends.

Jeff set up a trust for my family and was professional and handled delicate issues with thoughtfulness and concideration. He followed up with us and was able to answer questions, offer advise and make changes when needed. I referred him to two other clients and he did a great job for them also.

Jeff has great people skills when meeting one-on-one, but his deficiencies include: responsiveness, delivering on promises, being organized and keeping straight records and action items, and client/project management. Regrettably, my overall rating is impacted by poor client management skills. There are multiple examples to give - but in interest of space, here is one. Our trust administration is still not completed even after over 2 years since my mom's passing due to Jeff's unresponsiveness and unanswered emails. One year ago, I received an angry call from Jeff while I was at work where he proceeded to tell me why I was a bad client. He articulated no purpose for the call. He was emotional and was letting me have it. This call lasted for an hour. Regardless of who was at fault, it is poor form to lose composure and call to 'have it out' with clients. Before dismissing me as being an unreasonable client, it is important to mention I have had a successful track record of leading teams, motivating others to perform their best and strong relationship management skills in the workplace. So I'd like to think I know when I've crossed the line from reasonable to terrible. Even when I escalate matters and create a sense of urgency, it is always done with diplomacy and in a partnership manner. So if you are considering Jeff and his firm, my advice is to tread carefully, set timelines, hold them accountable and have a plan B in the event things do not pan out to your expectations.
It is important to note that Jeff had my original posting removed by claiming I was not his client (at least this is what I gather from an email I received from Avvo). My father and I are in fact his clients. To this end, I'm reposting this review. I'm not sure why Avvo is censoring consumer reviews, especially when no community rules were violated (see community guidelines). But I sincerely do not wish the same stress and aggravation to befall another family, especially during their time of grief.