Keith L Altman

The firm is unethical and unprofessional. The attorneys should be investigated for violating the Michigan Code of Professional Conduct. I lost $15,000, received no meaningful representation, and was left to defend myself in a workplace investigation. Furthermore, despite appalling and nearly non-exi...stent representation, they repeatedly refused to refund my money and, only after numerous requests, produced inaccurate and misleading billing records. By way of background, I have been an attorney for over twenty years. I am also a college professor. A student made false allegations against me in retaliation for a complaint I filed against the student for egregious misconduct. To be clear, the allegations against me were false. I contacted this firm and paid $150.00 for an initial consultation, where I spoke to an attorney from Boston for about five or ten minutes (the firm is based in Michigan). He quickly requested a fee of $15,000 to represent me. After that, I never heard from him again. Also, I had one meeting with Mr. Altman to discuss my case, which lasted no longer than fifteen or twenty minutes. Over the next three months, I never heard from him again. Instead, I was given a non-attorney assistant, whose responsibility was essentially to answer my questions, even though he was not qualified to provide legal advice. In fact, over the investigation's three-month period, this firm spoke to the university once and drafted two poorly written letters to the university in which they misstated the facts. Quite frankly, they were embarrassing. When human resources released their report, I was forced to spend hours drafting not one, but two written responses and ultimately resolved this situation myself. I contacted the "assistant" to complain about their conduct. He admitted that he "dropped the ball" and apologized. After that, I never heard from him again. Instead, out of the blue, I received a call from an attorney in another state -- recall, the firm is based in Michigan -- who was suddenly assigned to my case. I had never spoken to this attorney before, and the attorney asked me what I would like the firm to do for me. At this point, I was so appalled because it was obvious that retaining this firm was a terrible mistake. The attorney ultimately wrote one more letter, and I was left to fend for myself until the investigation was officially concluded. After many hours of drafting responses and meeting with university officials, the investigation was resolved favorably. But I did all the work. Ultimately, I lost $15,000. I demanded a refund repeatedly. Indeed, in a good-faith effort to resolve the matter, I compromised and said I would accept a refund of $7,500. They refused. What's worse, I repeatedly requested their billing records; when I received them, they were inaccurate and misleading with, among other things, duplicate entries for the same conversations or tasks, and no indication of how much time was spent on them. It was shocking. For the past year, I have hesitated to file a complaint against this firm because I feared that the firm would respond with falsehoods. After speaking with my attorney colleagues, however, and showing them the billing records, they were adamant that I should file a complaint with the Michigan State Board of Ethics. I intend to do so, and caution everyone to not, under any circumstances, retain this firm.