Richard Louis Camaur

Richard Camaur loves to talk legal issues, and is clever enough after nearly four decades to know that by starting any meeting anecdote with what seems like a microcosm example relevant to the client's case, he can then ramble on for hours and talk about himself while you pay for the privilege of his... boorish self-aggrandizing. Worse than that, however, is that he condescends to his clients to the degree that he thinks they will believe he is reducing their bills by having them do all of the work for discovery, interrogatories, and motions. Sadly, that work, though perhaps not as laced with latin words italicized for effect, is that Camaur may know legalese better than his clients, but his instincts are poor, his self-estimation of perhaps formerly formidable strategy is as divorced from reality as the cases his clients pay for help with, and his general obsession with pay-in-advance-and-cash-that-check-the-same-day avarice is indicative of his fear his slouching--toward-retirement aloofness is likely to be a major reason you get such a lousy outcome, all while paying him outrageous sums that include such injury-to-insult surcharges as long voice mails designed only to ensure reaching the threshold at which they are billable time for messages containing no new information. I was most frustrated with Camaur advising me to do something I said explicitly several times I did not want to do because, despite his expertise in the area, I knew intuitively would not work based on my knowledge of the defendant he could not be expected to have, and even then he went against my wishes and let slip that he did so because he "spent the entire day crafting this motion!" Sure enough, he did work the entire day on that motion, and it was clear he did it all himself, as it was riddled with misspellings of my name, incorrect dates, and other embarrassing typos filed before I could pay for the usual and customary Camaurism of paying him for the privilege of doing his work, because by the time a client understands his business model, it's too late to switch counsel, and the devil you know is a devil indeed. Expect "everyone loses in these types of cases" and "no one wins here, one tries to mitigate losses," and other tripe that will only show he is in addition to his other shortcomings very impaired on originality, as well as astuteness. That he thinks any client is as disengaged as he is from their case is folly and demeaning; but to think no one will "get" the cleverly disguised code for "I will not win this case, but will win your life savings pretending to act like I care to do the right thing on your behalf" is nothing but confirmation that Camaur is resting on laurels from long, long ago, and is retired from practicing law already in his mind, if the official date is still a few years away. Camaur is also shocked, genuinely, so unable is he to maintain a poker face when presented with information the client discovers that he was unaware of and more surprising than that aware that he should be presenting this new evidence to the client, not vice-versa. Camaur is also so detached that his law practice, such as it remains, is the irony that he can uphold with a straight face -- he is practicing law, not actually performing his futures as your legal counsel and officer of the court. Don't expect calls after 5 pm to be answered or returned even within 24 hours, but you will be billed and billed and billed again and again for each returned call of act he did without your consent -- the figures will never be discounted for lack of success, failure to follow through, proposed winning strategies that never do, or just doing what is asked professionally and never able to accept that despite having a bright legal mind he still works for clients. Hard work never killed anyone, the cliche goes, and Camaur is robust proof of how true the adage is. Intelligence is helpful only if applied; and like a toolbox that remains shut, tools unused are just tools.