Jeffrey Lawrence Forte

My experience with Attorney Jeff Forte was deeply disappointing, especially given the cost and the promises. He presents himself as warm, attentive, and highly invested — almost like a politician on the campaign trail. But once you “elect” him by signing the contract, the tone shifts. The personable ...advocate from intake is replaced by someone who seems to expect you to accept whatever level of service he chooses to provide. Concerns began before I even hired him. His intake person told me he would offer a flat fee at the initial consult. At the consult, he said he charges by the hour, insisted she would never say otherwise, and claimed he records all calls. I provided exact dates and times from my phone bill and asked him to pull the recordings. None were provided. When I attempted to record the next call myself, he refused to continue the conversation, so I switched to email for clarity and documentation. During the first contract, all he really had to do was attend (via Zoom) the very first PPT — a meeting that also included the district’s attorney — and signal that legal counsel was involved. It was the shortest PPT I’d ever experienced. Two weeks later, I received a revised IEP with nearly everything I had been requesting since elementary school. My son was 19 and attending a post–High School Transition Academy. That moment alone showed how little actual advocacy was required. I’ll acknowledge my part: I misunderstood the monthly contract structure for the second year. Even with $5,039.50 left in our “trust,” I received a bill for $9,500 to “replenish your trust account.” I was already dissatisfied, but instead of starting over with a new attorney, I stayed. Across the full two‑year contract, I paid $13,675. For almost eight months, I avoided contacting him, thinking I was saving billable hours. After twice requesting an accounting, he finally explained that under the installment‑fee contract, I was paying $675 a month whether I contacted him or not — meaning I had been paying for nothing. I take responsibility for not having another lawyer review the contract, but I didn’t expect to need a lawyer to interpret a contract from the lawyer I was hiring. After that, I didn’t reach out much because the Special Education team at the community college stepped in and provided the support the district had failed to offer. A PPT was scheduled for three days after the contract would end — during a period when he planned to be out of the country for the last two weeks of the contract, making scheduling even harder. I was told he wouldn’t attend. When the meeting was moved to fall within the contract period, he did attend, but with his camera off, minimal participation, and no meaningful engagement. Most frustratingly, he did not advocate for the one specific issue we had repeatedly asked him to address. The district’s dysfunction is systemic, and families are already navigating a landscape stacked against them. What made this experience so disheartening was seeing similar behavior from someone who markets himself as a champion for those families. In my view, clients already dealing with a broken system deserve steady, reliable advocacy — not disengagement and inconsistency. Based on my experience, the level of commitment I received did not match the level of trust or financial investment I made.