Brian Lepak of Trope and Trope (a firm that has been accused of malpractice and sexual harassment of its own clients!) takes the cake on dirty tactics and fleecing those he’s sworn to defend. No one is surprised when they catch a lawyer being driven by greed, but Brian Lepak, who was recently ousted by the Los Angeles firm Trope and Trope, takes the cake.
Numerous complaints have been filed with the California State Bar, the Better Business Bureau and even the RipOff Report. Most famously, Lepak and his firm accidentally leaked confidential notes about NBA star Gilbert Arenas and his legal battle with his girlfriend and mother of his kids, poisoning the case against their own client. Gross incompetence aside, Lepak and his firm don’t just fight dirty, they are so ruthless they do real damage to their own clients. They then milk them for every last dollar they can, rendering any settlements or wins all but useless.
Still Lepak has gone to great lengths to clean up his record–and is said to be using threats to get negative stories in the media removed. The Washington Post has even reported on the efforts to sweep the firm’s misdeeds under the rug–read about that here.
In a recent trial in Orange, CA, Lepak’s inappropriate use of his own client’s cancer diagnosis and history of bi-polar disorder drove her to check herself into the hospital the day before her trial was to resume: causing her to have to re-litigate and relive her problems for many many months. (Read about it here.) The fall-out has been so bad the firm recently “closed” only to reopen a month later at the same address with a slightly different name.
Recently, Lepak stooped to new lows when he deliberately misconstrued an innocent video of vet visit with the family dog as an incident of sexual abuse by the father in a divorce matter. It showed he will stop at nothing, seeking to destroy family bonds that will hurt both sides for decades, with no regard for decency, or humanity. In another case Lepak is said to have planted cocaine on a parent in order to get custody for the other parent–we are awaiting more details and will repost when we have them.
Lepak was named in a malpractice suit by the firm’s client Susie Evans in a California Court that alleges Lepack partner James Durant provided insufficient services in her divorce case, and went after her for massive fees despite having done basically nothing. The court filings (available here) allege he inflicted emotional distress, and even sexual harrassed her. (Having sex with your client and then bullying her for her life savings while she’s going through an emotionally difficult divorce can’t be Bar approved behavior can it?) Considering this track record it boggles the mind how bad Lepack must have acted to be ousted by a firm that is fueled on exploitation.
Thank God Yelp’s rules don’t allow for the subjects of reviews to easily manipulate honest assessments from unhappy customers. Yelp is full of reviews calling Lepaks’ firm Trope and Trope con artists and greedy criminals.
It’s not just the opposition that is unhappy with Lepak and Trope and Trope’s tactics. Read these recent reviews:
CRIMINALS. MALPRACTICE. CORRUPT. They DO NOT have your interest. Their only interest is to maximize their own billing, which involves protecting large entertainment firms who give them lots of business. The laws should be changed so that these sharks can face penalty for what they do to people who are going through an intense and emotional time. Instead, they pick your pockets, drain your accounts, mislead you, conspire with your opposition, get very little done, and what they do manage to get done is insufficient. FIRE THEM and STAY AWAY. Tell everybody. Email me and I’ll tell you which attorneys we worked with and what they did that was so wrong.
And here’s another: DO NOT waste your money on this firm. Do not be fooled by the brand name. They have a reputation of being reputable ….what a joke. Unethical, manipulators , and NOT confidential . bunch of narcissistic attorneys who talk a big game but do not deliver. Divorce is a difficult time , do not waste your time on attorneys who do NOT have your best interest in mind. A bunch of suited up wannabes pretending to be attorneys . Trope and Trope? more like Dope and Dopes
The positive reviews on Yelp are pretty obviously paid shills seeking to save the reputation of the firm.
Here is a very damning review on RipOff Report that shows a client losing millions of dollars on a case Trope and Trope pushed her into despite her desire to settle with her husband: