Can I fire my real estate lawyer?

I had to do this once (basically, the lawyer flat out refused to do due diligence). I don't know how "common" this is, but it's certainly not unheard of. As for how much they charge you, it seems like its up to their discretion. If you choose to fight it, you better have a good lawyer. Also, keep in mind that having liens against you, should you lose, won't look good in terms of getting a loan/in passing a coop board.

I fired mine, although he did nothing remotely as bad as what you described. Once our contract was signed, he took forever getting back to us with answers. This was in stark contrast to his immediate responsiveness when we first put in our offer. Seriously, at one point I thought he just quit and joined a commune somewhere overseas, his responsiveness was that bad.

However, I stayed with the same firm, since they already had the files and all our info. After I asked that the original attorney be removed from our case, I dealt with the partner up to closing. At closing somebody else represented us, with whom I was very happy, especially since some chasing needed to be done post-closing.

If you're unhappy, you may want to escalate the situation up to the partner. If this attorney *is* a partner, or if he's a one-man band, you should consider getting new representation, especially if your closing isn't looming on the horizon and the new attorney has time to familiarize himself with you & your case.

Good luck.

By committment letter, do you mean the retainer agreement you signed with the lawyer for his services? That you would still owe a portion of his fee, depsite not closing, is not, in and of itself, proof of malpractice. Clearly he/she cannot charge you for work he/she did not so, but if work was done, it is not impermissable to charge for that work, even if the closing does not occur.

That is often the problem with lawyers who do work for a flat fee - there is little incentive to do more than the bare minimum. Often times, you only get to speak with the paralegal, and not the attorney. Lawyers and firms that primarily do closings as their main source of business, and which charge a flat fee, depend on volume to make money, so the quality of the work suffers and the clients are often annoyed that they can't have all their questions answered. On the other hand, if the atty. charges by the hour, answers all questions and is generally attentive, then the bill would be way too high for the clients to pay.

Hey, thanks for the responses so far. Now I know firing the RE attorney is "done", I have two follow-up questions - is the attorney's work post-contract signing just going through the motions of closing, or something requiring more effort / discretion where he can somehow screw me over in favor of the sponsor? Because if it's just busywork, I'll probably just keep him on, but otherwise, I'd be inclined to fire him. 2nd Q- Has anyone fired their lawyer after partial work was performed so some kind of fee was owed and how did you handle the fee? Daniel178, it sounds like you fired your lawyer in the due diligence phase so before you owed him anything, is that correct?

Isle of Lucy- he's the partner in a small practice so unfortunately, I don't have many options to switch to someone else in the same firm.

jnnj- The fee and the malpractice are two different things. I'd rather not elaborate on the malpractice. I totally get it's a volume business and I haven't in any way been a high maintenance client. Even with my low standards, this attorney has been dismal.

First off, he should not represent you (the buyer), and the sponsor (the seller) at the same time - unless you signed some sort of waiver, that is malpractice as you have different interests. Run, do not walk, away from him asap. And yes, there can be work after contract which requires a "competent" lawyer's attention. Would suggest not paying him, and if he threatens to sue, respond that you will report him to the bar for his actions.

Our attorney does not represent the sponsor. However, the sponsor is a repeat player in RE whereas we are not and our attorney apparently found it in his interest to "play nice" with the sponsor's side and not fully represent our interests. There were certain key provisions that serve to protect the buyer missing from our contract. A good attorney would have advised his client about the risk in not getting these and perhaps even discourage the buyer from signing without them. When we told our attorney we needed these provisions, he actually discouraged us from asking for them! And even though our position was clear, we had to ask him multiple times to reach out to the sponsor's attorney on these points. By the way, this is not even the malpractice I referred to earlier. The malpractice itself will seem small in comparison to everything else, but at least we have concrete proof of it.

What exactly did he do- in general terms? And if you weren't comforatable with some points in the contract, then why did you sign?

If you're referring to the malpractice, I don't know how to describe it in general terms without saying exactly what it is. I'm paranoid that my attorney is on these boards, which is why I'm staying away from specifics.

Ultimately, we got the points we wanted in our contract, but we did it ourselves without the attorney's help.

You keep saying MALPRACTICE. If it's truly malpractice, you should call the DA, no?

Actually, no. Malpractice is a civil not criminal matter. And there's no point to suing him because there are no damages.

I fired mine for the exact same reason - she refused to perform the most basic due diligence. It is far easier to fire your attorney in the earlier parts of the process. If you are negotiating the contract, I would think you may want to grit your teeth and proceed, otherwise, you are likely looking at a complete "redo" as no good attorney is likely to pick up where the other clown left off.

In terms of the fees owed, we negotiated a (reasonably) equitable settlement as to what I owed for her "effort." I did ask for a detailed breakdown of her hours spent, and I whittled some of it away, given that I saw ZERO value in what she did.

Lanzz-
It would be funny if we had the same person!!
As I understand it, a verbal agreement is just as binding when dealing with this kind of situation. Please someone correct me if I'm wrong...?

HK50-
Yes, I let my (previous) lawyer go in the early parts (I can't really even say that it was during the due diligence "period" -- since there wasn't even hardly any due diligence done, except a quick glossing over of the financials). So, this lawyer in question DID do *some* work. Also, during our initial phone conversation, we had talked about her fee. As such, (and this goes back to what I just said -- that I am under the impression that verbal agreements are binding -- again, someone correct if wrong), I did pay her an amount she requested (not the full amount for a completed closing). So, while our "philosophies" on how to proceed did not quite mesh, I do respect people's time, and the majority of our correspondences were amicable.