Michael T. Smith

I was approached by this lawyer to represent me after I placed an advertisement for a lawyer. All he was interested in was to get a retainer of $2500 from me anything I ask in emails for clarification, he would cut and paste the same sentences from past emails. I realized that this is a cut and paste... guru and ended up hiring Mr. Antonio Jeffery whose retainer is 1K more but is doing an excellent job in representing me in federal court.

I hired this attorney to appeal the decision after my unemployment hearing. I had no representation at my first hearing and failed to present any of my exhibits. This attorney took $ without any written agreement. Then he bailed out two days before a new hearing date saying he didn't promise me repr...esentation. Good that I kept one email which confirmed what he promised. He didn't prepare himself, so he fought to move my hearing date by ONE month. This is for an umployment hearing. I already waited three months to get a new hearing date. I wasn't paid any benefits. He had three months to prepare. After the referee agreed to move the hearing date which he prelonged by another month, he bailed out again one week before the hearing telling me I'm difficult to work with and he won't represent me. He said I won't be able to find an attorney in such a short time and told me to do it alone. He said he won't be giving me money back for not representing me at the hearing date though he agreed to provide services for a flat fee. What concerns me is that lawyer never gave me a written contract. He bailed out twice before the hearing leaving me without representation. He didn't ask for my trascript from my first hearing when he appealed even though I asked him to. He told me to prepare all the bullet points. I had to hire a paralegal since I was too close to see what's objective or not. He set an appointment when he was supposedly work on my case. When I got there there was nobody there. He never seemed to care about my unemployment hearing. He was more concerned to start discrimination case trying to get a deposit for next presentation. When I said I was never treated this way in such a disrespectful manner, he answered. "That's not true. Your employer did that." Wow. Who was he representing I wondered. I contacted the Chicago Bar Association. I made an appointment with another lawyer in two days who promise to represent me in three days and prepare. And the new lawyer did an outstanding job! Now, I'm waiting for the outcome. At the end I was happy he dropped it. This lawyer was very irresponsible and didn't really care.

This is a dangerous attorney , I hired him 2 years ago on a handshake a bunch of false promises (no written agreement, my fault) and a lot of money , once he received the "retainer" nothing much happened, all he did was file the free claim with the EEOC ..which anyone can do themselves then did nothi...ng . His communication is all but non existent. He blew my case in many ways, if you have an employment discrimination case STAY AWAY from this Bully ! He only takes your case with money up front, as I've learned the hard way .. If you have a good case a reputable attorney won't take a dime upfront . If any attorney asks for upfront $ in a case one of 2 things is happening....you don't have a winnable case or the attorney is substandard .

I had engaged Michael for a labor case. I found him to be a very low-grade attorney. His work was poor/minimalistic - his filings were little more than copy/pastes of what I provided him. Michael is highly unresponsive - he spends most all of his time in a different state in the southwest, so this a...t least in part contributes to his lack of client engagement. I eventually had to hire a different attorney to try to fix the mistakes and other shortcomings of Michael's work. Also, check his record with the bar - he has a past infraction with them.