I first hired Mr. Marra in December 2014 to handle the estate of my late cousin and to prepare a will for my elderly aunt. I knew that he was not a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (an elite group of top lawyers in that field), but he clearly knew enough to handle a straigh...tforward estate. Moreover, it was great that Mr. Marra was willing to make a house call to my elderly aunt's apartment, given that it was almost impossible for her to come to his office. I was fully satisfied with the work he did in December 2014. I was less satisfied, however, with the work that he did in 2016, after my aunt died. The associate in his firm who was doing most of the work generally was good, but she unfortunately agreed to a request by the lawyer for the prospective buyer of my late aunt's coop apartment to list the names of all of my aunt's heirs as the sellers of the apartment, rather than just listing my name as the executor. I explained to the associate that this would present problems because it was not convenient for the heirs other than myself to attend the closing. Agreeing to the request by the lawyer for the prospective buyers made everything more complicated for the heirs whom the associate was representing. Things got worse after this associate left Mr. Marra's law firm. Mr. Marra apparently turned the real estate closing over to a legal clerk. The clerk didn't seem to know how to make arrangements with the representatives of the coop to schedule the closing, which delayed the closing. Finally, I ended up making a few phone calls myself and got the needed information. Before the closing on the coop apartment, the lawyer for the prospective buyer emailed to request pre-closing occupancy. Mr. Marra's email response was, "Usually I would instruct my client not to consent to pre-closing occupancy but I understand the situation" (meaning that he understood the reasons why the prospective buyer wanted pre-closing occupancy). I replied with some detailed questions about what the bad consequences might be for my aunt's heirs of agreeing to pre-closing occupancy. I got no answer to any of those questions from either Mr. Marra or the lawyer for the prospective buyer, so I stated the following day that I did NOT agree to pre-closing occupancy. I felt let down that Mr. Marra seemed less assertive than he should have been in protecting my interests, rather than those of the prospective buyer. I was then dismayed that the legal fees for the sale of my late aunt's coop apartment were MUCH higher than I had expected. My realtor had originally suggested that I use her lawyer, who was willing to work for a fixed fee rather than at an hourly rate. I thought it better to hire Mr. Marra (who listed real estate as one of his fields) instead because the realtor's lawyer would probably view the realtor as the true client even though I would be paying the bills. I asked Mr. Marra about handling the legal work for the sale of the coop apartment, and he agreed to do this work for a fixed fee--but he added a proviso that he could charge more if the number of hours of work exceeded a certain threshold. Admittedly, the first prospective buyer for the apartment was rejected by the coop, which did increase the amount of legal work for reasons beyond Mr. Marra's control. In retrospect, I should have been more suspicious of the proviso allowing Mr. Marra to charge more, and I should have had the realtor's lawyer handle the apartment sale for a true fixed fee. Finally, I was disappointed that Mr. Marra was very slow to review the final accounting on my late aunt's estate, which delayed the payment to the heirs.

I hired Mr. Joseph Marra to advise me and defend my interests vis-a-vis my coop board and management company. He recommended an excellent person to help me with some problems in my apartment. He also exchanged correspondence with the Management Company's attorney. My experience was very profession...al and even pleasant. I would recommend him highly and plan to go on using his services.