Caveat Emptor - buyer beware- is a wonderful statement about capitalism when it comes to microwave ovens and widgets. But when it comes to lawyers, believe me when I tell you this - do your research.
I hired the law firm Grissom and Thompson to represent me on a case involving a transaction with a Bank in Louisiana. The facts of the case were simple, and given that Mr. Thompson's reported experience in Louisiana was extensive we felt that engaging them for this legal issue would be straight forward.
An attorney and client have a bond of trust that not only must not be broken, it is protected under law. A lawyer must genuinely have a client's best interest at heart and must strive to protect those interests. Likewise, a client (in this case, myself) has a responsibility to be forthright and practical about their position as well. My company, through our board of directors came to Mr. Thompson in an honest and direct way: the company was in trouble and needed help. Badly. This case, and the money and liability associated with it could sink our company. Time was absolutely of the essence. But with a failed lawsuit, the company and our assets would be placed in jeopardy. We explained this to Mr. Thompson, and explained that we would be greatly restricted on how and when we could pay.
We agreed to terms, and he along with co-counsel in Louisiana began "representing us" on the case.
Almost immediately, Mr. Thompson's incompetence came out. We were constantly reminding him of the facts of the case. Deadlines were missed. Each and every time we got close to filing a response in the case, we were met with more negotiations. And once it became clear that the other side was just delaying, we pushed for filing countersuits. But every time the phone would ring, there were more excuses. More forgetfulness. Flip-flopping on tactics. It's no wonder that the party and counter-parties couldn't come up with a reasonable solution in a workable manner- our counsel couldn't even get the basic facts of the case straight after burning through 20 hours of billable time. And again, this isn't some complicated environmental issue. It was a simple breach of contract case with the facts heavily in our favor.
Eventually, we decided that we had to just focus on our suit in Louisiana. We could not focus on what was going on here until that issue was resolved. So I advised Mr. Thompson via email twice, phone message once and texas message to cease working on the case here. Those messages were apparently ignored (which, was par for the course) and work continued. So did the clock. When it was all said and done, the billable hours we were on the hook for exceeded the claim value of the case. These things snowballed, we were unable to continue to pay the exorbitant rate and we let the suit go. Mr. Thompson knew we didn't have the resources to continue to fight and that a failed suit would make our company insolvent. Rather than try to reconfigure a method forward, Mr. Thompson made the decision to sue me personally. He did. We had no resources to fight his ridiculous lawsuit, and since he has burned all of his other clients he had plenty of time to chase us down.
We folded up shop and fired our 6 employees. There are 6 more unemployed people and one less resolved dispute today, because of their actions and inaction. That is the truth.
In any event, I write this not as an attack on their lawyering skills, but as a warning. As one person's experience and opinion that this firm not only won't help you- they intend to do you harm if they cannot extract enough money out of you in a manner which is expedient to them. They are disorganized, deceptive, manipulative and largely disrespected because they are selfish and incapable of showing empathy towards their clients.
There is no feeling like trusting someone to help you in a very delicate manner, and having them betray that trust. We all strive to do the very best we can. That is simply not the case with this law firm. They will take everything you've got. They will not defend you. They will hurt you. That is their motive, that is their intent. read more