Gary D. Jander

From January 2021 through December 2021 I spent $112,749.87 with Brierton Jones and Jones with Gary Jander as my lead attorney, handling an 850 petition against my late father’s estate. Probate matters can be long, expensive and painful undertakings and my best advice would be to choose your counsel ...very wisely. Below are the highlights of why Gary and Brierton may or may not be right for you. The Pros: Opposing counsel was unskilled, lacking in basic probate knowledge, a hothead with a fondness for sending wildly unprofessional late night emails filled with insults and personal attacks. Gary never once took the bait, always responding calmly and professionally. Gary is also backed by a terrific associate, Ben Torrence. Probate is deeply personal, painful, stressful and confusing. Ben stood out for his empathy, responsiveness, ability to explain things simply and without condescension, and ability to make me feel reassured he cared about me as a client and not just a paycheck. The Cons: While Gary was very charming when I interviewed him, he was more often than not dismissive and borderline rude once hired. He could be unresponsive and seem irritated having to deal with my case and questions, despite getting paid over $400/hour to answer those questions. I did have a call with him to address this and pointed out very specific examples, and to give him credit he improved for about a month afterwards before regressing. At that point I was too far in with his firm to change and accepted feeling belittled and bothersome was going to be part of the deal. In September when his firm misfiled a Motion to Compel, resulting in the judge denying it (refer to San Diego Probate case 37-2021-00003753-PR-TR-CTL, ROA #72). Gary did accept responsibility in an email sent October 5th, in which he wrote "As far as it not getting it done by July 26, you must blame me because I did not follow up with Ben and it is my fault. There were internal issues and turn over that created this problem. I am addressing them, but I am the one who takes the blame" but as we wound up settling in December it was never refiled and there was no make-good, resulting in over $6000 paid for their bad filing. Further while Gary is exemplary in written communication with opposing counsel, he seemed flustered and lacking confidence in front of Judge Kelety. With such strong subject matter expertise it was strange to see (for reference we had 5+ hearings over the course of the year and this was consistently the impression I and my family members in attendance were left with). Ultimately, we had the outcome we wanted, but I believe it had far more to do with the other side running out of money and patience than any specific or noteworthy efforts by this team.