Chris G. McDonough

Mr. McDonough gave me thorough assistance helping me to prepare for a second appearance before the NY Bar Character and Fitness committee, and reviewed drafts of documents I submitted to the Committee. The Committee had made an issue about my losing a law job and a pending legal complaint I had filed... seeking redress. I was then admitted without having to have a full hearing, as I had feared. I am not sure this would have happened without his assistance. He also helped me under a generous financial arrangement.

I contacted Chris with a problem. He gave me great advise and cleared up my problem right away. He even offered to follow up in another matter and never asked for a fee. I will definitely retain him if this matter requires a lawyer who specializes in attorney ethics matters as he is the top man in th...at field in the state by all accounts. I highly recommend him to any lawyer who has a problem with a client or an ethics question org review center as he answers his phone right away and is willing to give consultations over the phone.

Responded back and forth by email and never provided actual written proof of the work done in the form of a formal report of his opinion even when it was requested. At first the explanation was that it was sent attached to an email and that the email couldn't be retrieved and then an explanation that... the office computer server crashed and all was lost was provided. At this point doubt was cast as to whether an opinion was rendered based on MY specific case because when pressed for a response the final email opinion was VERY generic and contained no facts to MY case. It also felt like the original work requested was not completed especially when he asked that the entire file be re submitted to him so he could take a look at it again. He also failed to provide a formal written bill of how the retainer, albeit a flat fee, was calculated. Sure he quoted his vast years of experience and his hourly rate but no dates and hours and minutes spent in formulating the opinion as is customary in the legal profession. Further more it seems that either the firm throws hard copy records away after they are scanned into the computer or he lost all of the documents that were sent because requests for a return of hard copy papers submitted were met with scepticiscm that they can be found. Finally when these questions and remarks were posed to the attorney he promptly offered a referral to another attorney.