Petro Zinkovetsky

This is the first negative review I have received since I've opened my law firm almost a decade ago. My business was built on customer service from day one and my team and I go above and beyond for our clients, just like we did for Mike and his wife.   As this transaction was about to close COVID happened resulting in NYC being shut down.  Co-op transactions in NYC are handled by buildings' management companies and this coop's management office was closed due to COVID.  If you read this review you will notice that the main thing this client is upset about is having to pay an extra month of mortgage because his closing was delayed.  He is not claiming that I failed to close his transaction, he is not claiming that I did something wrong, he is not claiming anything other than a 1 month delay.  The client blames this delay solely on me however fails to mention that his management company was unable to schedule a closing. His building would not allow any move-ins and the buyers understandably did not want to close without being able to move in.  His bank took over a month to produce a simple document required for a closing, and all of this was happening as the entire City and most of the country were shut down.  But he is so upset that he had to pay a month of mortgage that he "waited 6 months to cool down before writing this review".      The client claims there was a lack of response from me.  Just like most other businesses my office was unexpectedly shut down due to COVID.  Today my law firm is fully capable of working remotely, but at the end of March and early April we were just adjusting to the new norm.  I did a search in my emails - there are 332 emails that were exchanged between me and the client and/or that the client was copied on.  And that does not include my direct correspondence with the buyer's attorney, management company, payoff bank and title company or multiple phone calls my team and I had with the clients and all the other parties.  My team and I closed this transaction despite the pandemic and the government shutdown, despite my office having to close, despite client's management company refusing to schedule a closing, despite client's bank delaying the closing and despite the buyer not wanting to close.  Despite the ongoing pandemic, the clients insisted on closing right away.  Of course that required me to have some unpleasant conversations with the opposing counsel and management company to force everyone to close this asap.  So I'm not surprised if opposing counsel told something to the clients behind my back.  I am however very surprised that my clients claim they have spoken to the buyer's attorney directly a day before the closing. If this is true the buyer's attorney violated Rule 4.2(a) of the New York Rules of Professional Conduct.   This transaction was taking place at the beginning of a pandemic and there were forces outside everyone's control - such as the management company's closure for example. It's unfortunate that these clients did not appreciate all of the hard work that was put into their transaction by my team and I during the pandemic.   It is shameful that these clients would purposefully attack a small business at times when millions of businesses are closing throughout the US.  I wish them best of luck.