James Victor Kosnett

I hired Mr. Kosnett for my CSUN case. CSUN had violated due process and my civil rights when several of their administrators denied me meetings, and refused to collect any evidence on my behalf for a case on teacher misconduct. I did all the work before meeting Mr. Kosnett collecting student testimon...y and so forth. i hired Mr. Kosnett above other lawyers since he said he a good success rate representing students against CSUN. Now I know that was a bad decision. I expected some offer or some progress in the case. Mr. Kosnett DID NOT give me any day to day updates on my case at all, so it remains very unclear if he did any work on my case at all. After a month of no activity, I received an email saying that CSUN was not going to give me anything, and Mr. Kosnett's firm was not pursuing the case anymore. I come from a poor family, and paying Mr. Konsett $3000 of my mom's money, so he could something with this case has been a waste. As I said it remains to be UNCLEAR how much work if any was put in my case, but what I can judge him and his office on are the results, and the results are NOTHING. I think I probably made more progress on my own filing complaints with Department of Education and other entities to at least initiate some sort of investigation. Again, I did have other lawyers very interested. I would not recommend Mr. Kosnett, or his office for any future clients.

Mr. Kosnett. I met with Mr. Kosnett regarding a dispute against my University. Unfortunately, I made the poor choice to use another attorney and regretted it almost immediately. After this attorney worsened the situation I returned to Mr. Kosnett and he again consulted with me at no charge. He was ...extremely knowledgeable and not only answered all of my questions but recommended options to attempt before hiring any attorney. In following his advice, I was able to resolve my issue without legal intervention, which was amazing. I found him to be very direct and realistic when communicating, and very strategic in his process. He showed a real in-depth knowledge of the law and higher learning institutional processes. I recommend him to my friends and family.

For two and a half years, beginning in May 2010, I worked as Faculty Advisor for a student involved in a grade appeal at a CSU campus. Without the late intervention of James Kosnett, this long process would most certainly not have come to the successful conclusion that it did in December 2012. Th...e student appealed a final grade of "No Credit" for her semester of student teaching. She had received positive midterm evaluations from both her University Supervisor and her two Master Teachers at the high school site, and very strong final evaluations from her Master Teachers. However, due to what amounted to a disagreement over a miscommunication, the University Supervisor refused to give her credit, and refused even to discuss the matter with her, leaving her no alternative but to file a grade appeal. In December 2010, she won the first round of the grade appeal, the Program Grade Appeal Committee deciding that the Supervisor had acted arbitrarily in giving the grade of No Credit. However, from that moment on, the College of Education, responsible for administering the University Grade Appeal process, repeatedly violated the University's published procedures, resulting in the appeal being denied by the College Grade Appeal Committee, and finally by the University Grade Appeal Committee during the Spring 2011 semester. While this was going on, our repeated complaints regarding the procedures violations were simply ignored. At the beginning of the Fall 2011 semester we attempted to file a formal Grievance against the College of Education. However, at that point, the student was notified that, because due process had indeed been violated, the denial would be set aside if she wished to repeat the grade appeal process. Although we thought such a remedy to be dubious at best, and informed them of our doubts, which were, again, ignored, we decided to drop the Grievance and enter the grade appeal process a second time. Our doubts proved legitimate when, in the Spring 2012 semester, her appeal was again denied, with the College of Education being sure to avoid the due process violations committed the first time around. Convinced that the attempt to get a fair hearing within the university would be futile, we then decide to seek legal assistance. We engaged an attorney who claimed to have expertise in Educational Law. Unfortunately, as matters developed, we discovered that he didn't. He advised us that the matter could be addressed through what is called a Writ of Mandamus, which would avoid the excessive time and expense of a court trial, which was crucial to the student and her family. However, he soon informed us that the Mandamus was not viable, and that we had to prepare for a court trial. It was at this point, in May 2012, that we found and engaged James Kosnett, who was clearly called on to enter into a difficult situation. Mr. Kosnett entered that situation with enthusiasm and tenacity. By December 2012, he was able to convince the University that, given the history of the grade appeal process, litigation was not in their interest, and that a settlement was preferable. In the end, the University agreed to waive missed deadlines, etc. and allow the student to finish the last part of her student teaching to receive her credential in the Spring 2013 semester. The difference between working with the first attorney and later with Mr. Kosnett was extreme. At the outset, Mr. Kosnett clearly informed us of two possible approaches he might take--either to get the case back on the Mandamus track, or to seek a settlement with the University that would enable the student to complete her student teaching in a timely and convenient manner. As he pursued talks with the opposing counsel, it became clear that settlement was not only the best option, but also very possible to achieve. Of course, moving the University to cooperate efficiently in bringing about the settlement was a job in itself. But Mr. Kosnett, tact

Mr. Kosnett has truly re-defined the term "lawyer" from my perspective. Mr. Kosnett has proved that I was wrong about my former prejudice towards ALL lawyers as being people who are unethical, immoral individuals for no other reason, save for the very nature of their (---after all) chosen professio...n. However, Mr. Kosnett has demonstrated by exquisite example in my recent Grade Appeal Case against CSU%& (which settled only a week ago), that not ALL lawyers deserve to be labeled with adjectives such as: "selfish," "sleezy," "money-grubbing," "untrustworthy," "uninformative," "passive," or "lazy" as these are words that would be absolutely unbecoming of Mr. Kosnett. He was always enthusiastic, professional, calm and collected, and he always kept me informed of the progression of my case (down to the very minute!). Moreover, he was consistently honest about what my predicted financial costs would be, what the odds were of un/success throughout, and he passionately pursued a speedy and positive resolution of the case. He fought for me aggressively, but never AGAINST the opposing side; rather, he knew what ways would be most effective, and he knew that working WITH them was what had to be done--if we were going to get what we wanted at all. He remained calmly determined, as if he always had a trick under his sleeve (just in case). That being said, however, he also remained very aware of certain times when he was being purposely ignored, which resulted in the case appearing to drag along as time wasted away with no logical reason from the other side. This was when Mr. Kosnett let the "big guns" out and called the other side on their bullshit---rekindling that fire that he started under their asses, and in no time brought them back on-track, ordering them to hurry up and finish what needed to be done. And although their asses were painfully charred, they knew they could no longer treat me as they had in the past, which was to ignore me and stall for time. Not when Mr. Kosnett's on the case!! Thanks to Mr. Kosnett, my case never went to trial. This was because of a man who was committed to settling the case outside of court so that a trial could be avoided. He explained this to me from the beginning, which was quite frankly a tremendous relief, as there was no telling how much the case WOULD HAVE cost if it had gone to trial. The most telling bit of evidence I can offer on behalf of Mr. Kosnett came at the end of my case, when I wasn't too happy with some advice he gave me. After questioning him about it, he simply said that he had "always advised me in the same way [he] would advise [his] own daughter"---and I don't think there's ever been a lawyer to who would treat his client in the same way as he would his daughter, do you? If you need a lawyer, and you want representation by a person who is behind you, and devoted to seeing that your case is resolved as QUICKLY and as FAIRLY as possible, you NEED James Victor Kosnett!! And to all you OTHER lawyers out there---take a lesson from the man who has re-written who a lawyer IS and what a lawyer actually DOES; what you other lawyers SHOULD do and what you other lawyers SHOULD be: be like James Victor Kosnett!! Thank you Mr. Kosnett for everything. --J