Surovell firm

As Board member and Treasurer of a condo complex in Alexandria, I needed to confirm we were complying with the Virginia Condo Act. Our management firm had given inconsistent answers and I needed independent help as to our Board's legal obligations. I thought I was only 30% toward resolving my concerns before talking to Scott Surovell, but he quickly helped me focus on the critical issues and in minutes uncovered a key element in the Condo Act that requires ALL condo funds to be placed in a Federally insured bank while NOT requiring all condo funds to be federally insured! This unexpected result, followed by a little more work on my part, allowed me to quickly clear up my concerns AND inform my Board as Treasurer as to our true obligations. This was the first time I've used Scott's services and wouldn't hesitate to recommend him to anyone needing his services. Brian Coupe, Alexandria, VA

I'm currently using them as legal counsel for my renovation business. I am extremely pleased and have recommended other business owners to them.

The law firm is simply wonderful.nI had multiple civil cases with Mr. Petersen in the past decade. He is a super lawyer, fast and accurate assessments of the facts presented. He is realistic, deligent, honest, quick to respond to every question, never drag time, never over charge, and I can comfortably call him a jewel in the legal world.

I recently received a harassing letter from this law firm threatening legal action if I did not 'cease and desist' certain actions. There was one major problem though... the actions made were done by another person with the same name, not by me. So this raises the first issue... what sort of team do they have working over there where they are falsely identifying the person they are accusing, and sending threats their way without even confirming it is the proper person? I did a 15 minute search on this person with the same name on the web. The profile he posted from has his picture, which a few clicks later gave me his county and background through simple GoogleFu. The letter was sent to my home address in a different county, to an entirely different person. I determined this with a few clicks of a mouse on Google. Heaven forbid they ever go looking for a 'John Smith'...nnLooking over the letter there are descriptions of the issue, but nowhere is there a 'Oh by the way, if this was not intended for you, please let us know so we may resolve the issue!'. One would think such an letter would start with that but no, a curt line at the end that says, 'If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.'.nnWell, a question was not what I had. My wife had signed for this letter acknowledging receipt and it contained a threat to our livelihood if I did not cease an action I had no control over as it was being purported by another person. As a result, I tried to call the person in question. The message I received was something along the lines of 'This person is in the office, but unavailable.'nnSo at this point I called the general number and was bounced around a few times, finally ending up on the phone with someone else. I admit, I was understandably upset by this point due to being threatened by this firm due to them not even having the competency to do a 15 minute web search, and it definitely came through as I began relating my frustration to the person on the other end of the line, I believe her name was something like 'Maddy'.nnNow one would expect a service team, especially a law firm, to defuse the situation and resolve the issue of their mistake. Instead I was told, and I am paraphrasing with a close, but not exact statement here... "Well given your frustration you must be the person we are looking for".nnGreat... so threatened, falsely accused, and then insulted and accused a second time, only vocally rather than in writing... and then hung up on without a resolution. Is this how you want a law firm representing your interests?