Dawson G Crawford

We recently consulted with Dawson to draft a trust in which to put our home. We reached out to him and he provided a date and time for us to do a video conference call since we couldn't meet in person due to COVID. In preparation for the call, he also provided a cloud-based google document that asked... for a tremendous amount of information about our accounts, last 4 digits of our account numbers (a bit unnerving to be asked to provide this for a consult?), children's names, who we wished to leave items to, who our POA would be for our health care directives, etc. It was a lot of information to provide for a mere consultation, but we provided it. During the actual consultation, we discussed doing POAs and wills for each of us. He also discussed what we felt was a rather complex design of creating two separate trusts, one for each of us, to cover our situation. Mind you, this was his take on the best approach for our situation. It was more complex than we had envisioned, but we are not legal professionals and can't comment if this is normal and customary. After our consultation, Dawson said he'd get back in touch with us when he had something for us to review. A few weeks went by. Then we received the following email: "Thank you for meeting with me via Zoom for a free estate planning consultation. It was a pleasure meeting you After reviewing your submitted documentation, my notes from our discussion, some research, and careful consideration, your matter is not one in which I believe I can be of assistance at this time. There are many variables involved in my decision process to take on a new client, most of which are considerations of what is in the best interests of the potential client. This includes, but is not limited to, areas of laws that may fall outside my expertise, as well as overly complex legal and/or factual issues. Good luck." As Dawson himself was the one who had suggested the complex trust solution, we were surprised. We wrote back and said that we weren't aware of legal or factual issues on our end and asked, directly, if he had a conflict in representing us. To date he hasn't replied to this inquiry. We presume it must be the latter: a conflict. It was and is very unnerving to be ghosted like this, without further explanation, after having shared private information with him regarding the entirety of our financial accounts and partial account numbers. Dawson was very pleasant. However, if you hire him for your estate planning, we'd recommend sharing nothing until a business relationship is established and it is confirmed that he doesn't have a conflict in representing you or your interests.

Dawson Crawford is a fantastic lawyer. He will take the time to listen to your concerns and explain all your options. You will walk out of his office feeling well informed and that the matter at hand will be handled professionaly. We have used him for a lawsuit and to set up our trust estate. He is a...lways fully prepared.I have referred him to two other friends and they have been happy with his service. We feel like he is a trusted family member. We will continue to use him for all our legal needs and refer him to friends and family members.