[Silhouette]

If it's a law firm, then to me it is surprising that they would actively interfere with this guy's other professional relationships. If this really is as it appears to be, the potential damages both from interference with existing relationships and from defamation surely put this in "worth talking to a lawyer" territory in most places.

[dexterdog]

But do you really want to get into a legal battle as an individual with a law firm?

[Silhouette]

That's what you consult an actual lawyer for.

In my country, if they'd interfered with existing business relationships causing expected revenues to be lost, they'd made potentially libellous statements that caused a major source of expected future revenues to permanently block access, there was ample written evidence that they did these things deliberately and that actual losses were and would continue to result, and there was ample evidence that the victim had previously been well-regarded and able to command a certain rate for their services, I wouldn't want to be their position, law firm or not. Situations like this are exactly why defamation cases can result in such huge damages being awarded.

[dexterdog]

Well, maybe I'm just jaded by a recent experience with a former business partner who was an attorney himself. They guy had provably stolen over $100K from the company and our attorney basically charged us $20K to let him go. It was a valuable lesson to me to never go into business with an attorney again.

[chmike]

Not all attorneys are crooks. My daughter is attorney for business (Droit commercial, France) and she is definitely not a crook. In fact they spend a significant amount of work time trying to get the due money from clients. Please don't generalize.

The real problem is that there is no efficient system to weed out the crooks. There are no efficient pressure against them. Psychopats are king.

[dexterdog]

I know they are not all crooks. The problem is that you assume that somebody is not when you enter a partnership with them. If that partnership has to go to court you are at a significant disadvantage if your partner can represent himself against you, aside from the fact that he probably knows the law better than you do.

[Silhouette]

I'm sorry to read that. It sounds like you got screwed by not one attorney but two.

For what little it might be worth, not all legal systems are quite that bad.