Riley Brown

My comments are with respect to Riley Alcozer, who initially represented me in response to a hostile beneficiary of three family trusts for which I served as trustee. In summary, Riley was unresponsive to opposing counsel’s information requests leading up to a key response deadline, she had little or... no communication with me in that period, she missed the deadline, and in doing so disclosed my personal information to opposing counsel. Upon missing the deadline, Riley verbally admitted to me that she had a lot on her plate leading up to it. In my opinion, this should have been disclosed to me well before the deadline so I could have sought alternatives. I also believe the disclosure to opposing counsel that I was “out of town” was highly inappropriate, confidential, and irrelevant. In my opinion, rather than taking full ownership of missing the deadline, Riley deflected responsibility to me, prioritizing her own interests over mine. I further believe this signaled to opposing counsel that I did not take the matter seriously. Though I was out of state for a few weeks leading up to the deadline, I was easily accessible. After the missed deadline, I was placed in fire-drill mode to deliver a significant volume of the trusts’ financial statements by week’s end. I believe the approximately 60-day period Riley had to respond was squandered. For these reasons, I relieved Riley of her role as my litigator and retained new counsel. Riley and her legal team remained responsible for subsequent accountings for the three trusts. Though I had concerns about attorneys handling accountings, I was assured by the firm that this was common practice. In my opinion, there was no upfront due diligence by Riley and her staff regarding the complexity and volume of financial statements involved. The accountings required a significant amount of time and expense. The accounting for one of the trusts was deficient. Though I had delivered that trust’s bank statements to the firm two and a half months before a court-imposed deadline, these documents were never incorporated into the accounting — and Riley and her team never caught this critical error. This incomplete accounting was submitted to the opposing side and the court. I was the one who discovered the omission. Bank statements are a foundational document in any trust accounting, as they verify all transactions and cash flows. The submission of this deficient accounting was subsequently used against me in future court filings. That trust’s accounting was later withdrawn by my other counsel and completed efficiently, with minimal input required from me. As the son of a revered Texas attorney, I was raised with high standards for legal work. My father once told me that one factor he considered when hiring an attorney was whether the candidate’s shoes were shined. When I asked why, he said: “attention to the details.” In my opinion, Riley fell well short of those standards in her handling of my father’s financial legacy.