Clement Stephen Benvenutti

Giving Mr Benvenutti one star is more than he deserves. My parents retained his services after their long time lawyer retired after Katrina. They met with him in 2006 to give him copies of their living trusts and had him draw up a codicil regarding their trusts. My mom met with him again last year......2014 to change her and my father's power of attorney since my father was no longer able to execute if needed. Last week my father passed away and my mom, along with my sister and I met with Mr Benvenutti two days later. He had not reviewed anything regarding my parents trust before our meeting which I felt was pretty unprofessional. An hour into our meeting was spent with him reading the trust that my mom brought to the meeting and not really giving us any clear advice as to what needed to be done moving forward. My mom also was having trouble locating the codicil that was drawn up in 2006...signed originals and asked if he had copies. She only had unsigned copies. He denied ever drawing the papers up, that they didn't use that size paper or font. At the end of our two hour meeting...all of which being charged $200 an hour for someone that didn't come prepared, we left with having to leave my dad's trust without the codicil and a new codicil to be drawn up again so that my mom's wishes could be honored upon her death. Two days later, my sister found the original codicil in my parent's file, signed and witnessed by Mr Benvenutti and his secretary/office manager. I phoned his office to tell him that he didn't need to proceed with re-drawing up a codicil to my mom's trust, that we had located the originals with both of their signatures. I then proceeded to tell the office manager that I was disappointed with the fact they denied and were absolutely positive they did not draw up the codicil which if not found, my dad's wishes would not be fulfilled. The office manager told me by state law, they do not need to keep fike me past 7 years and so they don't. She defensively tried to justify their unprofessional attitude and work ethic. I told her how upset my mom was and she basically said "oh well". What is sad is that my mom thought that this was her lawyer, never released him or went to another. I wanted to write this review because I feel anyone thinking of using this lawyer should probably find another.