Paid Intake Consultation: On March 8, 2024, I paid a $500 fee for an intake consultation. I attempted to explain my history but was cut off repeatedly with unproductive comments. Despite paying for a full hour, counsel appeared eager to rush off the phone from the very first minute, and the session w...as abruptly cut short at 48 min. Disregard of Explicit Instructions: On March 28, 2024, I provided over 1 GB of sensitive documentation, explicitly instructing the assigned attorney, Amanda Moreno, that specific materials were strictly for "attorney eyes only" to build case strategy. Disregarding my clear instructions, she disclosed these documents to the opposing federal agency during discovery, severely compromising my legal position. Substandard Legal Work: Legal document submissions from Pines were sloppy, riddled with basic misspellings, and contained egregious factual and gender errors (falsely identifying me as female when I am male). The firm routinely promised to share documents in advance for my feedback, failed to do so, and completely missed critical evidence throughout the process. Court-Ordered Sanction: Due to the firm missing critical deadlines, the Administrative Judge issued an official legal sanction against my case on January 16, 2025. Unbelievably, the firm then billed me for the hours they spent drafting responses to defend their own administrative errors. Furthermore, they promised to address missing discovery items from the agency but failed to pursue them. Instead, they wrote a defensive letter to the judge excusing their behavior, and never sought out discovery items that were not supplied by the agency. Pervasive Unprofessionalism: Over the course of the representation, the firm established a persistent pattern of completely ghosting pre-scheduled, critical legal discussions. I was stood up with zero notice or via last-minute excuses on at least nine distinct times: April 11, April 15, April 21, and November 9 of 2024; and January 25, January 26, February 14, February 24, and February 28 of 2025. Each time, I took off work and rearranged major family obligations. I was given every excuse imaginable: localized technical issues, weather events, and multiple personal illnesses. On one occasion, I caught the attorney in a contradiction when she claimed she was sick, only for a paralegal to inadvertently admit she was away attending a wedding. Gaps in Knowledge & High Turnover: Even months into the case, the assigned attorney routinely didn’t read or forgot core facts. I was forced to explain critical elements multiple times, yet they still failed to find their way into the legal materials. Furthermore, there is an unusually high internal turnover rate; my file was passed between two separate attorneys and two separate paralegals who left the firm, destroying all case continuity and forcing me to repeatedly get new staff up to speed. Misrepresentation to the Court: We spent exactly 63 minutes on a single phone log-verified call reviewing discovery, yet the attorney formally represented to the federal judge that we had spent three hours actively coordinating and preparing the file. Hostile Client Management: If you express legitimate disappointment regarding these failures to managing partner Eric Pines, you are immediately redirected to Operations Manager Steven Tu, who acts as an aggressive, dismissive, and entirely apathetic barrier to accountability. Bad Faith Retention & Resolution: When I tried to sever ties due to their severe lack of care, the firm held an emergency conference, begged me to stay on the merits of my case, and promised to assign additional legal resources. I agreed, yet the pattern of negligence continued until my case was ultimately dismissed without a hearing. When I formally requested a refund of my fees (exceeding $10,000) on May 15, 2026, the firm initially offered a 50% refund. When I requested to be made completely whole, they retaliated by completely rescinding.
