Ira C. Podlofsky

I am an attorney, but I do not handle matrimonial, so I hired this mess to handle a simple, uncontested divorce for my girlfriend. Because he was referred by a dear friend, I foolishly did not investigate him. DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE I MADE. He took the money, but never successfully completed... the matter. He was completely unresponsive and when he was finally fired I had to chase him to get the file back. And, he failed to send the complete file. If he would screw a fellow attorney, there is no question he would do the same to you. He has filed for bankruptcy and has outstanding NYS Tax liens filed against him. All of this can be verified via online searches. He is incompetent and is a financial mess. Do you want to entrust your important legal affairs, and your money to a lawyer that has tax liens and a slew of complaints and lawsuits filed against him? As a member of the bar, attorneys like myself are expected to be lawful and trustworthy and to do the right thing for our clients. He has none of these qualities. Avoid retaining him at all costs, EVEN IF SOMEONE YOU KNOW IS FOOLISH ENOUGH TO RECOMMEND HIM.

We hired this lying lawyer 2 years ago to handle a simple, uncontested divorce. He took our money, told us the matter was filed, gave periodic updates, such as "should be finalized by holidays" and "will be done by 1q 2014" when in fact he had not even filed the papers. At one point, he ignored our ...inquiries relating to the status for approximately 4 months until he was threatened with a grievance before the Judicial Disciplinary Committee. Only then did he finally respond and a few months later finally filed the papers. Naturally, due to his incompetence, the Court rejected the documents, and now he is back to being the unresponsive sloth he was before. When he finally does respond to a client inquiry, it is always wrapped around some story about his secretary's health or his lying girlfriend's daughter's health, all of which are irrelevant to his negligence and probably untrue based on his repeated lies relating to the status of the matters he is handling.