Brendan Robert Appel

I had an excellent experience with Brendan Appel for my real estate legal help. He was very thorough, attentive, offered expert advice and a nice person. It was a good feeling to know he was in my corner.

I recently used Brendan for the purchase of a piece of property that I used to build a new house. Having never built a home before there were several steps in the process that were new to me. Brendan was very helpful and thorough in explaining to me everything and guiding me into making educated decisions on the contract terms. Brendan's and his team were very responsive when communicating and helped make the process go smoothly for me from start to finish. I would definitely recommend Brendan and use him again in the future.

Brendan did a great job on both closings for a new condominium and existing home. On the closing for our new condominium it was noted they had some wrong information on the deed. We were told the information was wrong since the beginning on the original and subsequent deeds and that we should just accept the mistake. Brendan said that was not acceptable and had all the preceding deeds for the property changed to reflect the correct information.

Brendan is very responsive, easy contact with the office and staff, worked with him twice. He caught some unreasonable fees listed on the closing sheet, so his service was virtually "free". Highly recommended.

Brendan's firm did a brilliant job helping us with the sale of our home. Their perseverance was exceptional and they kept us informed at every step. We recommend them most highly and without reservation.

I am a first time home-buyer and can't say enough good things about the Law Office of Brendan Appel. Brendan was very helpful in walking me through every aspect of the closing, and patient in dealing with a difficult bank situation. He went above and beyond in ensuring that our deal stayed intact and advocated for us to get closing credits from our bank when they caused significant delays in the process. The office's legal assistant Doris is a Saint! She answered every phone call and e-mail as questions came up, notified us quickly as things progressed, and also advocated for us when other parties were unresponsive. She coached us through every stage of the process and always did it with patience and a friendly tone. I am so grateful for her help and guidance. They really helped make this process easier and it was a very stressful and difficult situation dealing with unresponsive bank representatives, difficult sellers' attorney and constant delays from other parties. We couldn't have gotten through it without them!

My family and I relocated to Boston and needed to sell our house remotely. We used Mr. Appel's office to represent us. They did a fantastic job taking care of everything for a smooth closing. They were so diligent in walking us through the various steps and documents, and were so easily reachable at any time that we were comfortable letting them handle our transaction without us being around. We would highly recommend their service to anyone.

Brendan helped me and my husband through 2 long cases (a foreclosure and a fraud case against our lender). He handled things with genuine care and knowledge spending endless hours preparing our cases and after every court date coming to see me or texting me to let me know everything was going smoothly. He's always prepared for what ever his opposition presents to him. I truly believe in him and would highly recommend him to anyone.

If you are looking for a lawyer. You will not do better than Brendan Appel. When I was in the market for my first house, like most first time buyers I was very nervous about all the contracts and legal documents that went into purchasing a home. It's quit daunting. I was referred to Brendan through a co-worker that had used him before. After meeting Brendan for the first time I instantly felt at ease. He took the time to make sure I understood what was what. I never felt like I was being taken advantage of. And anytime I had a question or concern, no matter how small. Brendan always got back to me in a timely fashion. I know that I wasn't Brendan's only client, but he made me feel like I was. Needing a lawyer for anything is a nerve racking situation. But when you have a lawyer like Brendan Appel you instantly feel at ease. All lawyers should take a lesson for Brendan Appel. A true professional.

Punctual. Friendly. Answers all my dumb questions at the real estate closings. I have another closing coming up this week. With him by my side, I know it'll go smoothly.

I was trying to purchase a commercial property that was in foreclosure, and as if that wasn't daunting and painful enough, the credit bureau(s) had wrong information listed on my report and where refusing to change it. Brendan "swooped" right in and within days my credit report was cleared. Additionally, Brendan also made the whole foreclosure purchase a lot more bearable from communicating with the bank to providing all the extra documentation which seemed to change each day - I wouldn't have been able to do it without him! Extremely helpful, trustworthy and knowledgeable!

Mr. Appel was recommended to me by an estate attorney. He was able to make what were potentially difficult transactions very pain-free - especially for my aging mother. Always available to answer questions; patient; courteous and extremely professional. Its not often you can say that you look forward to "working with an attorney". Mr. Appel is the exception.

Extremely knowledgeable and professional service. Helpful in guiding through the toughest of cases. Highly recommended.

Unfortunately over 6 years later and I have ongoing disputes with this lawyer. As for his response on yelp on 11/4/17 he is questioning my honesty and his explanation is totally false on everything. He is completely lying by stating that we actually were awarded anything in the court of appeals. The real truth is because of his negligence by not using an expert’s testimony at the trial to determine my damages we were awarded nothing. The trial court disregarded the damages claimed in our case because it was me who prepared the damages and they deemed it unreliable because I am not an accountant. The court of appeals agreed that we are entitled to collect damages and sent it back to the trial court to recalculate the damages. The trial judge awarded us $45,000. This was again appealed. And the bottom line is we were awarded absolutely nothing because of Mr. Appel’s massive blunder in the first place to not include an expert testimony to solidify our damages. Everything boiled down to we were damaged and entitled to fees for our damages but no one could verify how much our damages were. And if you re-read how much Mr. Appel charged us in the first place, he had absolutely no excuse to not use an expert witness. He is also being dishonest about his claim this he was awarded a summary judgement. He was awarded a partial summary judgement which is not final and therefore not appealable pending our counterclaim disputing his fee and malpractice. Finally in order to judge Mr. Appel’s billing practice and moral compass, on April 24, 2018 Mr. Appel emailed my lawyer Mr. Bellas the following, “When we were last in court, you had asked for the amount for our attorney’s fee claim remaining on out complaint. Our total fees and expense is, to date, $20,101.21.” Just to make in abundantly clear to everyone. After Mr. Appel collected over $40,000 for a claim that started with an offer to settle for a little over $4,000, he is now asking $20,101.21 for the 3 page motion of a summary judgement for his fee to collect the $24,725.56 in the partial summary judgement. I would love to see Mr. Appel stand before a jury and explain that as a lawyer, he wants $20,101.21 in lawyer fees to collect on an unpaid fee of $19,373.12 (plus 5% monthly compound interest which totaled $24,725.56) with a straight face. These fees that are stated in Mr. Appel’s engagement letter as, “in the event of litigation to enforce this agreement you agree to pay our reasonable attorney’s fees and cost.” It is my understanding that most of lawyer’s engagement letters do not include such language and Illinois courts very seldom if ever award such damages. The irony of all of this is that I went to Mr. Appel in the first place to defend myself against being sued even though I was the one being damaged in the first place. Throughout the trial courts and appellate courts they all agreed that I was the victim and damaged but because of Mr. Appel and only Mr. Appel I have been awarded nothing and have spent several thousand dollars in lawyer fees. Lastly as for Mr. Appel’s request for you to visit avvo.com to see “many positive reviews from our clients” please note that when I wrote my bad review on May 29, 2014 he only had one previous review from 2007. One day after my review he miraculously had two 5 star reviews, 4 within one week and enough within a month (all 5 starts eh?) to place my bad review to the bottom of the site. Goes to show how fully honest he is. Other than one review in 2018 his last reviews were in 2016. I wonder how many new ones he'll get to cover this up?