Legal News

San Diego's Kerry Steigerwalt & Associates merges with Pacific Law Center

By Jason Siegel

San Diego criminal defense lawyer Kerry Steigerwalt took a majority ownership in the 30-lawyer Pacific Law Center yesterday. The new firm will now be called Kerry Steigerwalt's Pacific Law Center and has offices in downtown San Diego, La Jolla, Escondido and Chula Vista.

The Pacific Law Center has been getting complaints from clients who said that didn't get enough time with an attorney at the firm and were given unrealistic assessments of their cases. Former lawyers at the firm also filed lawsuits alleging attorneys at the firm field too large a caseload to provide the type of service advertised and that the firm emphasizes settling cases quickly, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Also, the Better Business Bureau lowered the firms rating from satisfactory to neutral after 38 complaints over the last three years and a judge criticized the firm for seeking public funds for indigent defendants in two cases where the clients had paid thousands of dollars in fees.

Steigerwalt, who is managing partner of the new firm, said six lawyers have been fired as a result of the merger. This will help remove some of the firm's past problems, Steigerwalt told the San Diego Union-Tribune. The former managing partner, Robert Arentz, still has a 49 percent stake in the firm.

The two firms plan to combine their IT and marketing operations, estimated at $100,000 a month at Steigerwalt?s firm and at $400,000 a month at the Pacific Law Center, the San Diego Business Journal reported.

The firm will focus on criminal defense work, bankruptcy and personal injury services.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on March 06, 2008 (boomark / email).