Kovitz Shifrin Nesbit

My wife and I hired Kovitz Shifrin Nesbit in 2014 to help evict a Chicago tenant who had not paid rent in six months. We worked with Wendy Durbin, an evictions specialist with the Firm.
The primary problem that I had with working with Ms. Durbin was the quality of her legal advice and the secondary problem that I had with her was her terrible communication skills. On the former, Ms. Durbin led my wife and I believe that we were better off not contacting the tenant at all after we begin eviction proceedings. However, we were not on bad terms with the tenant and have had no prior problems reaching them. Nevertheless, we took her advice and cut off all communications with the tenant. This turned out to be a major problem. Cook County is abysmally slow at processing evictions (I’m talking up to six months to process an eviction) and, in my experience, it was well worth it to communicate with the tenant. When Ms. Durbin’s advice appeared to be groundless and somewhat paranoid, I asked for a second opinion from another experienced real estate attorney. They advised me that I could contact the tenant and that I should simply be aware of the laws surrounding tenant landlord communications. After working with these tenants for a couple of weeks and encouraging them to find a new place to live, they left voluntarily. Had my wife and I continue to listen to Ms. Durbin, we would still be living in a motel while these delinquent tenants bankrupted us. On the latter problem-​our attorney’s communication style-​I found her to be a dreadful communicator. Primarily, she was rude and extremely condescending. I have a Masters degree and am a somewhat intelligent professional. While working with this firm, our attorney talked down to me like I was an absolute moron. While I remained focused on obtaining a solution to our problem, I certainly took note that this person was one of the most dreadful and unsavory professionals with whom I’ve ever come into contact.
I have to say that our attorney’s assistant was very kind. It seems that she knew about the difficulties of working with her firm and worked hard to be a personable, reasonable partner in a difficult legal process such as the one we experienced. When she went out of her way to be kind to us, she was «slapped on the wrist» by her boss for being too accommodating. I found this to be characteristic of the culture of our relationship with this firm and a sure sign that I would never work with them again nor recommend that anyone else do so.
If I could leave negative stars, I would. Reasons: poor performance, dreadful communication practices, lack of respect for other people.

We were a new condo association in a new development and knew we needed legal advice on many issues. We looked at various firms and got lots of recommendations, but what sold us on KSN was their tremendous library of on-​line resources and their very reasonably priced monthly retainer plan. That was six years ago and we’ve been very pleased with the quality and responsiveness of their services we’ve gotten from the firm.
They assigned one attorney to our association, so we’re dealing with the same person instead of being bounced around, and he is always VERY responsive. I’m the contact for our Board (they ask for one contact and since I’m also an attorney I was assigned) I don’t think I’ve ever had to wait as long as 24 hours for an answer to a question, and often get an answer within a hour or so, even if I’ve gotten an immediate email reply that our assigned attorney is out of the office.
I also appreciate that they proactively let us know when there are court cases or new laws that we should be aware of. In those situations they not only send us summaries of the changes, but also proposed rules or resolutions we should consider adopting in response. All of this has been covered by the monthly retainer.
I highly recommend the firm and its retainer plan to any condo association.

Homeowners Associations and its Boards! Beware of lawyers from Kovitz Shifrin Nesbit! This are dishonest lawyers who aid and abet fraud and extrotion racket, and place HOAs in risk of huge liabilities!!!
I currently sue Kovitz Shifrin Nesbit for fraud and assessments extortion racket.
Kovitz Shifrin Nesbit systematically exploit US Court system to collect unlawful debt, expropriate units, place owners under the mountain of bogus debt and keep possession as long as possible. Units are gainfully rented and profits are camouflaged under bogus fees and charges. I have first-​hand experience with their extortion practices. For instance, Carl Sandburg and Chicagoland sued me twice with help from well-​know court raketeers Kovitz Shirfin Nesbit, claimed that «no profits received» while unit was rented and created $ 600 worth bogus fees each month, such as «late fees» «fines» «non-​compliance fines» ect. Mr. Briskovic daughter, Christina Briskovic, worked as Assistant manager, so they can easily manipulate assessments and hide profits.
This is not only in one property. Chicagoland –trained managers and Kovitz lawyers sue elderly homeowners to death around the City of Chicago to get possession of their units, and after unti sold, claim non-​existing debt from the new buyer. For example, Carl Sandbrg HOA#1 and Kovitz sued to death Roberta Barnes, claimed bogus debt $ 12,486.71 while her unit 1355 N. Sandburg Ter. #1707 was rented for $ 1,100. Mrs. Barnes was sued 10 (ten) times, whice after she died. Mrs. Barnes had surplus $ 4,023.45 as of 01/​01/​2010. Her assessment was $ 305.00.
Former Chicagoland manager, Mrs. Lori Blake (now Draper and Kramer, who also run Carl Sandburg Village as the managers) and Kovitz Shifrin Nesbit put on death bed 81 y. o Willie Riddle Mae, in Lake Terrace. This elderly person was sued 7 (seven) times, once after his death, with 5 orders of possession. His unit was rented for $ 650 per month.
So, please beware of Kovitz Shifrin Nesbit, they are bad news for ALL homeowners associations.
Here are many other lawyers, who have ethics and integrity, please consider them instead of Kovitz Shifrin Nesbit.

My condo association board (I am a member) has used KSN for a handful of issues over the past decade and we have always been pleased. We were introduced to KSN through our management, Connected Management, but I know that they are a large firm so any board could use them.
If your association has delinquency issues, which we have over the years, having a strong legal partner is a must. I would confidently recommend them to any condo building.
We were able to have a conference call with one of their attorneys, at no cost, to discuss various topics before we agreed to hire them. Based upon that they are easy for a board to interview.