I had a horrible experience with Gwire. I have since learned that he has been sued at least FOURTEEN times, and at least SIX cases have been active against Gwire in the last three years. Many of these suits against Gwire are for remarkably similar complaints, and many describe experiences with Gwire similar to my own. Based on these many legal filings against Gwire by others, and my own experiences with Gwire, I believe that Gwire regularly does immense damage to his clients and others who put their trust in him.
Suits against Gwire include:
* Clients - at least six separate cases, as follows.
Clients who have sued Gwire in SF include at least:
1. Hallock 2. Madden 3. Scherpf 4. Krantz. All of these cases are found at http://www.sfsuperiorcourt.org/index. Aspx? Page=467. Just go to name query and enter Gwire's name.
In Los Angeles, Gwire has been sued by at least two former clients: Readylink (Filed in 2009), Arminak (Filed in 2010 and now pending).
Others who have sued Gwire:
— Former employees - Lara Shapiro
— Predecessor counsel - Margaret Seltzer
— Expert witnesses - Roulac Group
— Court reporters - Sheila Chase
— At least one other legal services provider - U.S. Legal Support.
That's ELEVEN cases, and there are several other cases of Gwire being sued on the SF court and LA court websites, so a total of at least FOURTEEN. Gwire has practiced law elsewhere, from Florida to California. It takes a huge amount of time to review all of these courts’ records for other suits against Gwire, and I haven’t. So, he may have been sued many more times than this.
Meanwhile, numerous tax liens, some State, some Federal, have also been filed against Gwire.
The following excerpts are from a legal filing by Readylink, in the most recent (known) suit against Gwire, in L. A, #bc423848. This is frighteningly similar (though there are differences) to my experience with Gwire, and to many of the other cases against Gwire, as well:
"Defendants were representing Plaintiffs regarding the claims against LBBS for at least 23 months, and handling the LBBS Litigation for at least 20 months, during which time they did not conduct or defend a single deposition and did not prepare the case for trial. Defendants never completed their investigation. Defendants did not interview critical witnesses. Defendants did not review critical client files. Defendants lost control of relevant documents and failed to preserve evidence, including the files of Greg Hafif, a lawyer who had taken over the representation of ReadyLink... Defendants did not obtain critical third party evidence. Defendants failed to serve necessary third party discovery such that Plaintiffs later discovered that... Records of one company were destroyed, and therefore became unavailable for use...
[D]efendants allowed the case to get to the critical time frame of only... (3) months from a scheduled trial without preparing the case or conducting any meaningful discovery.
Defendants were unprepared to prove causation and damages... Among other things, Defendants had not obtained the transcript of the trial... And, without it, could not possibly have presented the necessary proof of the claims...
Despite having been engaged in July Defendants did not begin reviewing hundreds of boxes of client documents until March only three months prior to the then scheduled trial, and some 18 months after the LBBS Litigation was commenced. Defendants did not even substantively begin the process of gathering information necessary to contact key witnesses or subpoena critical documents from third parties until eighteen (18) months into the case. Defendants did not implement a discovery plan or a trial plan, and if they prepared those, they did not carry them out. The limited work that Defendants did was not useful to the clients and did not advance the prosecution or defense of the LBBS Litigation. Because of their lack of diligence and failure to honor their contractual obligations, the Defendants had to seek two continuances of the trial date."
A sample of the Krantz filing looks very much like the Readylink case:
"Gwire lost important documents... Gwire failed to exercise reasonable care, skill, and diligence in performing legal services for Plaintiff and was negligent and careless in his representation of Plaintiff."
Shapiro, his former employee, filed the following against Gwire.
"Gwire intentionally concealed the settlement and contingent fee from Plaintiff in order to avoid paying Plaintiff what she is owed... Pursuant to their contract. Gwire's conduct was designed to deprive Plaintiff of her property and to take that property for himself... Gwire has fraudulently converted Plaintiff's monies..."
The Roulac Group, an expert witness that sued Gwire, was awarded over $146,000 against Gwire. The Roulac claim states "Gwire has refused to pay plaintiff..."
Scherpf's filing states:
"Defendants abused the trust and confidence of plaintiffs by giving false and misleading advise, by failing to carry out their duties as attorneys, by causing the dismissal of plaintiff's action, by failing to keep plaintiffs informed of information bearing on plaintiff's case... And by placing defendant's pecuniary interest above plaintiff's interests."
Based on these many legal filings against Gwire by others, and my own experiences with Gwire, I believe that Gwire regularly does immense damage to his clients and others who put their trust in him.
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