Paul W. Ryan

I consulted with Mr. Ryan 3-5 times in person and over the phone before hiring him as counsel in a civil proceeding brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ultimately Mr. Ryan sought a settlement with the SEC. My main issue was that Mr. Ryan recommended I accept a settlement document that ...contained private and personal information that amplified the humiliation and reputational damage caused by the case itself. Such information included where I attended college, my relationship history, and with whom I lived and how long I had been living with them. In my view this information was immaterial to the facts of the case, and, because I could find literally no other settlement document for similar cases that included this level of information, I found this view to be supported by the facts. When I approached Mr. Ryan with this position, he claimed he could do nothing and generally appeared unsympathetic to my claims. While producing a settlement document I viewed to be inconsistent with those of many other cases was my main issue with Mr. Ryan, I will add he often criticized my personal behavior, often at times of high but I would think understandable frustration with how the case was going. This was disappointing, and made it difficult to improve the attorney-client relationship. For example, when my case was leaked to the press (specifically, to Christian Berthelsen, a Bloomberg reporter who has since quoted Mr. Ryan in other, non-related articles), Mr. Ryan again was unsympathetic and suggested my time would be "better spent worrying about what got [me] here in the first place. Please do not contact me again." Overall, I would not recommend Mr. Ryan. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The copy above represents my original review of Mr. Ryan. Some 9 months after it was originally published, Mr. Ryan repeatedly and without solicitation contacted certain members of my family who helped finance my engagement with Serpe Ryan LLP. Mr. Ryan told my family members he "did not like" the review and indicated he would appreciate them encouraging me to remove the review. After Mr. Ryan received notice that I would not remove the review, he, rather than accept my decision, escalated the conversation with my family to a threatening level, remarking that "I won't take this lying down." This disturbing behavior doubly reaffirms that I would not recommend Mr. Ryan or Serpe Ryan LLP to potential clients.