Julie R Vacura

We hired Ms. Vacura on a real estate dispute. We sold our primary residence and the buyers were unhappy. They were suing us for what we thought was a large sum of money. From our initial meeting, we were clear that we wanted the cheapest and quickest resolution to this case. We told Ms. Vacura th...e specifics of our case and told her that if we were at fault we were more than willing to write a check. However, we were advised that we had a defendable position. As the process proceeded, the fees from Ms. Vacura began to amass and we asked for a budget; which we received. However, ultimately Ms. Vacura went over budget by 2X. In addition, when Ms. Vacura maneuvered the case to bifurcate the damages from the legal fees, we asked that if by settling for even one dollar would we be liable for the plaintiff’s legal fees. Ms. Vacura assured us that this was not the case. She was painfully wrong. After the arbitrators ruled against us, I attempted to calmly discuss the matter of fees with Ms. Vacura and yet she became belligerent. She repetitiously kept saying that “no outcome was ever guaranteed” and that the “arbitrators had the law wrong.” We relied on Ms. Vacura’s professional advice in navigating the waters of this suit and yet we would have been better advised offering the plaintiffs the money they originally demanded. In the end we ended up spending more the money than the initial plaintiff demand. In fact, at one point the plaintiffs proposed a settlement at close to half the initial demand and we were advised by Ms. Vacura not to take the deal. It was clear that Ms. Vacura was more interested in booking hours than settling our case.

We had an urgent real estate issue which involved the improper clouding of the title to our property. We had spoken to several attorneys in the Portland area and even formally retained another attorney before it became evident that he misrepresented his experience in that area of law. (Also, despite ...knowing that we had an impending deadline, he took our retainer and the very next day, went on a 5 day vacation without ever disclosing that he been planning on leaving town for several months.) After getting our retainer back from the first lawyer, we did speak with a couple of other local attorneys regarding our legal problem. They were fine but seemed to be inclined toward escalating the matter instead of looking for a way to resolve it expeditiously and, without great expense. I was fortunate to speak with Ms. Vacura prior to retaining anyone else. Ms. Vacura along with her capable associate, attorney John Rake, offered a sensible option before initiating any aggressive legal action. Now don't misunderstand, this firm is a highly regarded aggressive and successful, litigation firm. Yet, instead of encouraging us to pursue that tact, they offered us a practical option. And it worked! We could not be more pleased. And when it comes to billing, you often DO NOT get what you pay for when it comes to legal representation. But both Ms. Vacura and John Rake, were up front regarding their services and fees, and they quite reasonable. I highly recommend considering a consultation with Larkins-Vacura before committing to retaining any other law firm in the Portland metro area.

When I first interviewed 3 attorneys for my lawsuit I knew what type of Lawyer I needed. I needed a tiger because I knew It was going to be a long, hard battle against someone who had 18 years of complete control of a business in which I was 50 per cent owner. She made sense out of 57 boxes of evid...ence and a thousand bits of paper and e-mail all the while she and her staff were trying to keep up my morale. She worked long and hard on this case and even though this case took a lot out of her(2 1/2 weeks of trial) she always had a smile for me and others. Needless to say I did pick a tiger. She won the case hands down.