Coombs & Davis

My wife and I recently purchased our first home, and hired Coombs & Davis as our closing attorneys. We paid them a significant fee for this service. Part of their service involved transferring our closing funds from our bank account and having them available at the closing. Unfortunately, the lawyer who was supposed to perform this transfer was on vacation, and they had brought in a substitute from another firm who was unfamiliar with the process. When my wife arrived for the closing, this lawyer told her that it was her (my wife’s) responsibility to provide a certified check, and that she had 30 minutes to run to the bank to obtain one or else the purchase would be in danger of cancellation. She drove frantically to the bank, obtained a check, and ran into our mortgage specialist, who confirmed that it had actually been Coombs & Davis’s responsibility to transfer the funds. (He told me later via email that he was «irritated» at their oversight.) My wife returned to Coombs & Davis with the check, and informed the substitute lawyer what the mortgage specialist had said. He neither admitted his mistake nor apologized. I contacted the firm shortly afterward, politely requesting that they reimburse part of our fees since they had not provided all of the services for which we had hired them. I received an email from Fred Coombs admitting the mistake, and blaming it on the substitute lawyer, but refusing any reimbursement. He told me, and I quote directly from his email, «The attorney covering for us while we were on vacation was unaware of [your bank’s] transfer policy.» Based on this experience, I cannot recommend these attorneys. I’m really surprised that they think this is an acceptable way to do business.

They have handled a couple of real estate transactions for us — super nice people and conveniently located in Maple Tree Place!