Emilie M Fairbanks

In my case, I felt the feckless nature and poor Judgement of this attorney. I felt that Emilie Fairbanks had Extremely low ethics. After picking a horrible tenant, picking a horrible attorney only exacerbated the situation. She has a "wait-and-see" approach that leaves you under-prepared for deal...ing with horrible tenants. She has poor follow-through and you will need to stay on top of everything. Emilie's communication is so lacking. She does not take responsibility for her mistakes, i.e., filing late, delaying process, missing court, not returning phone calls). Emilie lacks simple due diligence that will delay your process and allow her to collect more attorney fees. The only winner in your case will be Emilie or the other side, She made mistakes that only benefited her bottom line/attorney fees. At the end of this experience--I felt taken advantage of. We all make mistakes, but her mistakes seemed pre-meditated in that they allowed her to drag out my case while I lost money and continued paying her attorney fees. I Before signing with Emilie--push back and establish some clear expectations. Demand that she talk about the next steps and push for a clear understanding of her approach and strategy. She will attempt to avoid this by saying that the courts are unpredictable, I learned that the courts are actually very predictable--especially for an attorney with as many years as she has been practicing law. And if things start to look strange/questionable--fire her.

Being a first time landlord, I thought the landlord/ tenant court would be the quickest and most logical answer to resolving my problems. After two failed mediations and one more trip to court, everything seemed like it was a hopeless and confusing situation. I had contacted Emilie by phone after... seeing her posted on this site. She was very relaxed and easy to talk to. We exchanged several e-mails. I explained the situation and how coming to DC every other week was hard on me. The morning of another scheduled status hearing, I contacted her. We agreed to meet after the hearing. Well, the hearing was another try at mediation set up by the tenant's attorneys. Wow, it was amazing, Emilie showed up and expressed her concern for me. She knew exactly what I was going through. I needed her expertise, starting no later than, then. From our communications and meeting her for the first time, I felt comfortable and so sure, that she was the right person to represent me. She listened to me and understood exactly what was going on. She successfully mediated an agreement in my case. Her tenacity, experience, knowledge and her strife for fairness are all qualities that make her an excellent attorney and an outstanding person. I would not hesitate to recommend Attorney Emilie Fairbanks.

I retained Emilie to help me with compiling the paperwork/licenses/inspections/etc. necessary to rent out a single family unit in the District. She also helped review and amend a boilerplate lease agreement that my condo board required me to use. I found Emilie to be courteous, professional, timely... and knowledgeable. She directly answered each of many questions with clear and direct answers. A great resource for DC landlords who are interested in getting it right the first time and easing some of the stress and confusion that comes with being a first time DC landlord.