John Ellis Ellsworth

I received a WI state tax bill that I needed to dispute...and to make a long story short I ended up doing all the leg work MYSELF! I was charged $1500 for John Ellsworth to only send a couple e-mails on my behalf. I did all the rest! He missed several letters that were mailed to him from WI DOR. Beca...use I had made him Power of Attorney over my case some of the letters didn't get sent to me. This caused me to miss some very important deadlines for getting in the proper documents. He never negotiated getting my bill lowered. I managed to get some of the bill reduced on my own. Simply put...HE WAS OF NO HELP TO ME.

I gave Ellsworth a $15,000 retainer. After months, he failed to do anything other than request additional documentation and information from me. When he finally sent me an email message apologizing for the delay in handling my filing, the attached draft of the filing paperwork was full of errors and... was not at all in agreement with how I had told him I wanted the case handled. I said enough is enough and told him that I no longer wanted him as my attorney...he responded by hanging up on me! After that, he refused to respond to any of inquiries until I finally had another attorney contact him. Then he sends my new attorney an invoice stating that he used all the $15,000 retainer (to the penny). Keep in mind that no paperwork was ever filed on my behalf nor did he do any work other than corresponding with me...this was just a simple bankruptcy!

I worked with John for months on my Audit. He would not get back to me in a timely fashion, would not get certified documentation to prove delivery dates to the IRS, had little detail information to contribute to my case, the IRS constantly complained that they did not get information from him. At th...e end he considered my close to $10,000 IRS tax penalty a huge success. I finally had to hire someone else to finish the audit. As an attorney I'm sure he can argue his way out of these problems . But in summary I don't feel he provided the service he promised. Not even close.

My interactions started with John about 3 years ago and we have recently reached a resolution. I was audited by the IRS and they made accusations that would have resulted in large tax payments which I believed were unfounded and an error on their part; primarily to do with education expense deduction...s. I was a full time student at the time getting my MBA and I did some research in the Chicago area to find a well reviewed attorney and after speaking to 8-10 attorneys I reached John, who in ten minutes had asked more questions and given me more insight than the other attorneys combined. To make for an easy read/review I will break it up into the categories that proved important to me: 1. Communication: John and his team kept me in the loop at every step of the process. As this went on for three years after some time I no longer wanted to be bothered with small updates and his team granted my request and only engaged me when they thought it necessary - handling everything and allowing me to focus on my daily life. This ability to dictate the communication level I wanted an the fact that they were able to adapt was very important to me as I am very busy. Additionally, I am not well educated when it comes to tax law and whenever I had detailed questions as to my case, the law around it and John's opinion he was very thorough, patient and diligent in his responses which was very valuable. 2. Knowledge & Honest Support: At the outset of my case it was clear to me John knew exactly what I was up against and how to best approach the situation. Further, he was honest about his thoughts as to whether I was right or wrong, and as a team they decided to fight my case because they truly believed what I had done was right. Knowing I had a legal team on my side in principal, not just because of the payday help put my mind at ease; I knew I was in good hands. 3. Fees: John's fees were very fair for the amount of work he and his team had to do. Further, when I paid the fee he communicated it covered me for a period of time and to resolution (with some caveats). Although my case lasted 3+ years, John never asked me to pay additional fees and stuck to the exact agreement we made at the outset which speaks to his character & ethical guidelines. Although I no longer live in Chicago, I will never consult another tax attorney before working with John and his team, I couldn't imagine another team operating better than they did, what a wonderful experience.