Neil A.G. McPhie

During initial meeting with Tully Rinckey lawyer Neil McPhie, fighting a retaliatory termination matter after filing a EEO complaint against my manager, he suggested that my case (should I choose to use his firm) should concentrate on negotiating a settlement offer. The offer would be based on com...pensatory, agency retaliatory action, whistle blowing, EEO (a dual case). This sounded great and seemed covers all the bases. I learned that in dealing with this firm, Never believe what you hear in the initial meeting. They will say whatever, in order to lock you in, but they do not produce any good outcomes. Mr. McPhee stated that his firm would prefer to negotiate a settlement because going through the discovery process (MSPB) would be very expensive to me. I was currently terminated and unemployed due to my having filed an EEO complaint against my manager. Once paid over five thousand dollars Tully Rincky firm went about preparing the MSPB response. No settlement negotiating offer was initiated by Tully Rincky firm. Instead the entire billing process went into the discovery for the MSPB case. After over a month of receiving/giving evidence to the firm, evidence that had been given to Mr. McPhie in our initial meeting, now I had to give/explain this information to his counterparts. When dealing with this firm I interacted with over five people. Yet none of my inputs went into the documents. The drafts presented, outside of my personal information, were very formatted. A month later it was the opposing agency who initiated the first settlement offer. Once the firm (Tully Rinckey) noted that the agency offer included “ pay the legal fees”, I could get no further assistance in my defense when addressing the initial issues put on the table concerning my termination and my rights. Tully Rincky lawyer, Mr. McPhie turned a blind eye to the defense, and instead left several individuals to handle the case. The objective seems to be “ build more billable hours” and not to concentrate on a settlement offer in my defense. I was constantly brining to Mr. McPhie and his staff attention, the initial objective. I was openly ignored. Mr. McPhie was so out of tune with my case, that he constantly sent me email pertaining to his other client. This became a common mistake on the firm’s part. I would answer and Mr. McPhie would state that, the email was not meant for me, and asks that I erase the email. Yet the email was almost duplicates to what Tully Rincky offered on my behalf as a settlement offer. This showed a complete lack in attention to detail, as well as each client being given individual attention and assistance, offers were pretty standard and favored the opposing agency once legal fees were covered. Again when presenting the evidence in my defense which I wanted submitted in the counter offer, Neil McPhie, he responded by withdrawing and sending out a mass email to the agency, the MSPB board and me, it read “Please be advised that effective immediately, the law firm of Tully Rickey. PLLC is withdrawing its representation of you in your pending MSPB appeal. It is obvious that the trust and confidence necessary for an attorney-client relationship does not exist. I will take steps to inform the judge and agency counsel of my withdrawal.” Neil McPhie had made five thousand dollars at my expense. I experienced that this firm operated like a cattle farm, standardized legal representation and one that caters to building billable hours from their clients. Once you sign their five page contract your open to unlimited billing, and not for the matter that you hired them for. They were efficient in summing me up, a black person so give them a black lawyer. But the objective is the same- gain as much billable hours from the client as possible with no real results given.