Patrick Dean McMullen

Patrick McMullen

I completely understand the frustration this client faced. Her divorce was a difficult one; her soon-to-be ex-husband refused to cooperate with paperwork, responding to correspondence, and assisting in any way with resolving the case. While his attorney and I have a great working relationship, I can only describe his actions as "being a stick in the mud." As for the "ethical misconduct" this individual speaks of, the only thing I will say is that I was under no legal obligation to inform her that I had previously prosecuted him. Arguably, my former prosecution of him put me MORE in her corner, not less, but there are no ethical implications in the slightest. I have informed her that she is more than welcome to take her complaint up with the ethical board, as I am positive the board will view my actions as harmless at best. Furthermore, I prosecuted thousands of individuals. It is impractical for me to keep a running list of that entire population. Finally, this client did not pay anywhere near the amount she claimed. We had a fee agreement, of which she could only pay a portion of initially, and I agreed to not ask for the remaining amount because of her limited funds, despite her skyrocketing fees. This also does not include the hundreds of text messages she sent me over the course of my representation - many of which were extremely lengthy and time-consuming to review and note in our case planning. Not a single one of these messages were billed, and the amount of work she got for free would be in the "dozens of hours" range. Ultimately, while I feel terrible that this client was dissatisfied with my services, she is bitter and angry that the legal system itself did not work exactly as she had hoped. I did everything she asked, when she asked, and I wish her the absolute best of luck with her future representation in this case.