This review concerns a case in which a disbarred lawyer worked on my file, that fact was admitted under oath by opposing counsel, my own attorneys failed to act on that admission. Their failures were so extraordinary, that it seemed as if they were deliberately sabotaging my case. They ASKED to join my case against their old boss, claiming that they watched every day for cases which would let them "get back at" him. Yet, they removed claims from my lawsuit without asking first, failed to request a directed judgment when the Defendant admitted to stealing from me under oath, quit 4 days before a trial and billed for work never delivered. This review is to document failures by the law firm Ringel & Brymer which fatally harmed my case. Background and firm-level conflict: Ringel & Brymer sent me an unsolicited registered mail letter asking to be added as counsel and specifically offering the firm's services free of charge in my case against Derek Van Gilder whom both Ringel and Brymer had previously worked for/partnered with and whom I was suing for theft of retainer and failure to appear. I asked how James Ringel had become aware of my lawsuit against his former employer/partner and he replied that he'd been watching all filings in Bastrop courts for anything involving his former employer, looking for any opportunity to assist in any action against Derek Van Gilder. Obviously in retrospect this was a MASSIVE conflict of interest. Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, this type of conflict is non-waivable, particularly given Ringel's claim that his former employment with Van Gilder would give him "the inside edge" in assisting me with my case. This unwaivable conflict is obvious to any first-year law student, or at minimum requires strict written informed consent and careful compliance. (TDRPC 1.06(a), 1.06(b), 1.09(a), 1.06(c)) Having already suffered theft at the hands of Van Gilder, not to mention having to take over the case I'd hired him for, I was financially strained and accepted James Ringel's offer of free help. At intake, I recall signing a written conflict waiver. My wife was present and independently recalls reviewing the document and seeing me sign it. But after the representation collapsed, Ringel stated in writing alternately that he could not recall whether any written conflict waiver exists, that he could accelerate the efforts of his staff to "find it" depending upon why I wanted it, and in the same email suggested, startlingly, that a conflict waiver might not have been required in this situation. For a partner-level attorney at a law firm to be unable to confirm whether written informed consent was obtained in a plainly conflicted engagement reflects either a serious firm-level compliance failure, or a fundamental lack of truthfulness. (TDRPC 1.01(b), 1.03(b), 1.06(c)) Failure to act on sworn testimony admitting use of a disbarred lawyer! During the proceedings, Derek Van Gilder testified under oath that a disbarred attorney, R. Allen Rogers, worked on my file. Understand, this was sworn testimony by the Defendant himself! That admission triggered IMMEDIATE obligations for Ringel and Brymer: to notify the court, to seek appropriate relief, and to address the legal and ethical consequences of a disbarred lawyer's participation. James Ringel and Jimmy Brymer did NOTHING. Worse, BOTH both had prior employment with Van Gilder and were in a position to know of Rogers's prohibited work on client files James filed no motion/objection, contacted no authorities. No relief or corrective action was taken. (TDRPC 1.01(a), 1.01(b), 1.03(a)) This failure to act exposes James Ringel and Jimmy Brymer to possible sanctions up to and including disbarment themselves, and brutally calls their integrity into question. (TDRPC 1.01(a), 1.01(b), 1.03(a)) Van Gilder's exhibits at trial showed billing me $400 per hour instead of $390 per hour, plus multiple $400+ charges for the same intake phone call. These exhibits were sufficient ON THEIR OWN to prove my claims of theft by Defendant. Despite this, no attorney from Ringel & Brymer moved for a directed verdict or judgment notwithstanding the verdict. James stopped communicating once the case went to appeal. Weeks/months went by without issuing witness subpoenas or engaging in trial prep. Nobody from the firm stepped in, FOUR DAYS before the trial I had to fire him to act on my own behalf, or lose by default. Each of the above failures are individually serious. However taken together they were devastating. The combined impact of such gross negligence was indistinguishable from DELIBERATE SABOTAGE of my legal interests, This failure raises serious questions under the Texas Disciplinary Rules and was referred to the appropriate authorities for review. I CANNOT recommend Ringel & Brymer for matters involving conflicts of interest, trial practice, ethical compliance, or deadline-critical litigation work. read more

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Bullying behavior towards a grieving, elderly, blind widow: I regret having done any business with Jimmy Brymer and his paralegal Vanessa. We hired Jimmy Brymer for a simple probate case in May 2024. He recommended we do what he called "full on" probate. Our understanding was he would file sanctions, paperwork, and other required items for the case. Brymer gave us a time frame for resolving things, even told us (all three meeting with him) if things were not settled by October 2024 he would 'consider himself a failure'. It became clear he did very little, if anything, for 5 months. After repeatedly asking for updates, after we reminded him about his own October deadline, he finally started to do some work on our case then. He called November 3rd stating "we won" and when asked to explain what this meant he said the other party accepted our offer. Supposedly, all Brymer had to do was file the agreements with the court and he did not do so. When asked about it he said it would not affect things because "we are in the right". He told us we had a court date - we assumed he got the court date to finally get this done. It turns out it was the other party's court date to have us removed as executors as unresponsive, not completing the work needed to be done, etc. when we had provided everything to Brymer by July 28th. We had given Jimmy Brymer hundreds of pages of documentation, receipts, prenups, spreadsheets of who owned what, and he had not prepared any of this for the court hearing. The judge admonished him for not doing his work and further said we needed to hire mediators since Brymer couldn't get an agreement. The judge never knew we even had an agreement with the other party because Brymer never filed the paperwork. IWhy would he not file the paperwork, which then asked us to go into mediation ? One can only assume it was to bill more hours. The client here is an 82 year old legally blind woman; Brymer's office knew from day one she would need help with all documents. She asked her daughter and son-in-law to be present at all meetings which they agreed to. The day after the court date noted above, Brymer asked the client to come and sign paperwork, which he sent ahead. We helped her review the document. It was full of several errors. When these errors were pointed out to the paralegal - Brymer didn't even attend this meeting despite the fact he scheduled/required it - she told me she "could not make any changes without Brymer's authorization" and I asked Vanessa, the paralegal if she was asking her client to sign a legal document with errors that she has been informed about, she stated "with all due, due respect, you are not the client". Brymer and Vanessa acted like bullies and wanted her to swear and sign an incorrect document without Brymer even being present! when she refused to sign it, Vanessa then asked the client - 82 years old - and her son -in-law to leave. this is when we went to the effort to fire him. The document is on file with the Bastrop Court He then sent a very large bill the next day. He also tried to get us to sign a document that said he wasn't representing us any longer. After we fired him by filing a court document to do so. I guess to hide the fact we fired him? He raised his a paralegal rate $25 dollars more a hour from the last bill - which he is supposed to notify us in writing of a rate change and he did not do so. Add to this, a series of changing paralegals (fired? Quit? A no good?) We heard all those reasons why the changing staff. There was an office fire. The firm also lost storage keys they were keeping for a hand-over that should have happened months ago and for a lot less money. we will be filing a formal complaint with the state bar. Malpractice is also a strong consideration. Sent from my iPad read more

We couldn't be happier with the service and resolution provided by the firm. Between some of the long-term cases we were dealing with to immediate questions that came up, James and Jimmy were always available to help. I've worked with a number of law firms (big firm through a corporate benefit, one-person shops, small biz-focused teams, etc.) and none have been as responsive and helpful as Ringel & Brymer. With other law firms, I've sometimes felt like I was being squeezed for a billable hour or that the attorney was trying to hide some gap in their experience. If ambiguities arose about the best way forward for my case, James/Jimmy let me know they needed extra time and would immediately respond within usually 24-48 hours. Not only did I feel that they were serving my best interests, but they also took a few extra minutes to bring me up to speed if I wasn't familiar with a particular legal topic. Everyone involved in this case at my company raves about James and Jimmy, and I'm incredibly glad to have a go-to firm for any future legal needs. read more

Jimmy and his Team have gone above and beyond for me! Their attention to detail and their dedication is truly amazing. Thank you guys again for being such great hardworking people! read more

To begin with, my mother-in-law is an 82 year old blind widow, who can't see well enough to read without help, this matters later. We started off great with Jimmy, he seemed to be doing a good job, but not being attorneys ourselves... We used him for two trusts and for a probate case. One of the trusts was nothing like what my mother-in-law wanted, it had the trust ending on her death, not carrying on as she wished. The other trust, the petite, small trust needed corrections from me before it could be signed. This was the beginning of our working with Jimmy, and it became a pattern that lasted until the end. Repeatedly sending documents with the wrong information was just the beginning. After 5 months, Jimmy dropped off the radar and completely ghosted us. We tried to contact him for the entire month of June. I sent him emails and called from June 6th and didn't hear back from him until the 26th with a lame excuse of being sick last week. Communication from then on was sporadic and always started with us, he never provided any updates without getting hounded for them. We were given dependent executorship of the estate with all of the rights and responsibilities that go along with it in April. The other heirs had taken items from the house before probate started, after the death of my mother-in-laws spouse. We repeatedly asked Jimmy to compel them to produce these items so we could finish the inventory. He did nothing other than send an email to the opposing council. After months of inaction, and repeatedly sending us the wrong information on documents for the court, that I had to correct, I sent him an email telling him the following: "Hi Jimmy, just wanted to let you know I have changed my review to reflect the representation that we have received from you and your office. I cannot express how upset I am that I am the one that suggested you to Edna. You have completely failed to represent her in this probate case." at that point he sent my mother-in-law an email stating that if I was going to be involved in the future that he would withdraw from the case. I had been doing all of the work on the estate, the detailed inventory, the valuation of the inventory, getting affidavits lined up and in his hands, doing all the research for the various issues that kept popping up, and making corrections to almost all the work provided by the law firm. I have put in over 70 hours, working on this case, as she is disabled and not able to do the research or even review bank statements without help. I guess maybe he wanted those hours to be billable... Yesterday we FINALLY had our day in court, after being told repeatedly this will wrap up everything and that she had won. What actually happened was the Judge admonishing Jimmy for not providing the court with an inventory, or any indication that we were unable to do so due to the opposing party having items that needed to be included for the inventory to be completed. Jimmy said he had emails between counsel and the judge said that unless it crosses his desk in some form of a motion it doesn't matter, and that emails between counsel are inadmissible. And after everything, all the work and money, we are going to mediation. So the judge says we need to file an inventory by tomorrow. Jimmy emailed a document for her to sign, riddled with mistakes, including once again the wrong truck, and to top it off, he had the claim that she had against his estate showing that she OWED the estate, not that the estate owed her. Today we went in to sign the corrected document, that I spent 4 hours on last night getting right. Jimmy wasn't there, too embarrassed I guess. His assistant Vanessa told my wife that she was not the client and she wasn't going to listen to her. My wife was pointing out that the document that they had put together, rather than the one I provided to them still had errors that needed to be addressed. I went in and told her not to sign it. When I started reviewing the document we were asked to leave. Went to the courthouse and explained everything to the clerk, who did not seem at all surprised that Jimmy was not doing his job correctly. So as of today, he has been terminated with prejudice, a waste of $20k+ and a year of work. Thanks for nothing and see you in court for your newest malpractice case! See my complaint with the Texas Bar Association for all the details!! read more

I have used James Ringel for several different types of legal issues over the past year. I couldn't be more pleased with the service I received. During one legal issue, we were dealing with some people who just could not be satisfied, no matter what we offered. James made it all happen. He was able to bring this case to fruition, and I was extremely happy with the results. I intend to use James whenever I need legal help in the future. If you're having legal problems and don't know where to turn, I would suggest trying this law firm. I know you'll be in good hands. Oh and by the way, his name rhymes with Pringle. That made it easier for me to remember. Lol read more

Hola, altamente recomiendo esta firma de abogados, me atendio el abogado Jimmy, Fue muy profesional y estuvo atento a mis preguntas de testamentos, recibi muy buen servicio y tambien ofrecen precios razonables, muchas gracias por sus atenciones Barbara Amador read more

James was fast to respond and professional. He was able to help me quickly with time sensitive legal needs.