Reviews

Peter helped us with a dispute around an employment contract my husband had with his employer. It was a very emotional time for us, and Pete was a great lawyer to have on our side. His experience in negotiations was spot on and we got a result we were more than happy with.

I wish I would have listened to the reviews about Peter. A lot of them were relevant to me. I feel he is condescending and wastes you're time and money although, even though he will try and tell you he gives you free time.

I had a terrible experience with this guy. As others have said, he will spend hours on minuscule wordsmithing and other timewasting tasks. He'll suck money out of your pocket until you catch on. After doing nothing remotely useful for me, he ended up ghosting me – wouldn't respond to calls or emails, which I thought was extraordinarly unprofessional. Something very wrong going on here.

Pretty bad experience. Broken promises, self-serving attitude, unresponsiveness.

Pretty bad experience. Broken promises, self-serving attitude, unresponsiveness. Edit: See https://www.yelp.com/biz/pierce-and-shearer-llp-san-mateo

So grateful for Peter and his team - they are compassionate, thoughtful, and professional! I needed help quickly and Pete made the time to walk me through the process and answer any of my questions. I appreciate how he puts his clients first and is able to help on short notice. I feel confident in my choice and would be back again!

In 2014, I retained Pete Shearer of Pierce & Shearer to assist me with the pursuit of multiple copyright infringement claims. Pete came well recommended to me by a trusted attorney friend of mine from a different area of law in the SF area. In the first matter, I'd tried to handle the situation myself, and opposing counsel basically told me to go fly a kite, doubting both my awareness of my rights and my veracity to seek relief. Opposing counsel's haughty advice to "get myself an attorney" turned into an equitable result for me as soon as Pete got involved. He brought in co-counsel with specialty in intellectual property matters, combining their vast collective knowledge with negotiation skills that effectively parried every eye-roll-inducing excuse and defense the other side dished out. Their effective articulation of the merits of my case and application of just the right amount of pressure helped to expedite the settlement process, saving time and money. Pete and co-counsel's focus on my best interests did not end when a settlement was reached. Pete carefully considered the implications of not only the contractual provisions of the settlement agreement itself, but also intangible elements such as securing a correction photo attribution displayed in a prominent location. My interactions with his office staff were also consistently positive, with professional and prompt attention to my needs. It's been said that attorneys are the only winners in copyright cases. This was definitely not the case for me. In addition to equitable relief, Pete helped me stand up for my rights and establish an industry reputation for enforcing the value and exclusivity of my work. I highly recommend him.

I could not have asked for a better experience. Atty. Shearer was very informed and took the time to explain each option for my situation. He was always available and worked late hours to help me. His office staff is very helpful and polite. I could not believe that he even came in one Saturday for a consultation. Even after we ended the consultations, he called to make sure that everything was going well. I could not have asked for a better experience and would highly recommend him to anyone.

I hired Mr. Shearer in relation to a housing discrimination issue. He was extremely meticulous and analyzed the case from every angle to ensure that I was protected. He treated the case as if it were his own. He was always on top of things and obtained the results I wanted--not once did I have to follow up regarding the status of my case. Thank you for a great job, Mr. Shearer!

He was hired to assist with a simple mediation that should have taken no more than 1 week to resolve. He succeeded in drawing out the mediation for over 4 months and I was stuck with a high 5 figure bill. As others noted, I had a lot of group billings, lumped charges and he even billed me for extended phone conversations when he said I was educating him or he talked about his religion. I received one bill in 5 months prior to the final bill that was due upon receipt.

The other negative commenters are spot-on, and I wish I'd checked Pete out here before I hired him. I was referred to Pete by a friend who was using him at the time; unfortunately, both of our experiences ended up being awful. Pete severely overcharges, wordsmithing minuscule changes into hours long issues with multiple people on his staff involved, and spends countless hours revising his ridiculous, convoluted "case summary" format on your dime. He also never gives straight answers, to questions like "what is the status of my case", and "how much do I owe you?" and could never answer any questions without one of his associates or paralegals, who seemed to understand my case much better than he did when I talked to them. I eventually hired another attorney who sent bills when asked, was far more efficient, and wrapped up my employment issue in a week's time, while Pete took over a month. Definitely wouldn't use him again, and I would caution anyone who considers him to know what they're in for.

I totally agree with the two star reviewer from July 2014... "Pete" billed me at every breath and repeatedly lacked efficiency in his work (written and spoken) which supported more billable hours. At one point, I had to ask him not to spend any more time on my case as it was ridiculous. He even billed me for filling out unemployment forms where he was word smithing something that could have taken 5 minutes and he turned it into an hour plus. My surprise bill made me lose all the financial benefit that he presumably gained by securing his services. Of course in hindsight I could have negotiated more cost effectively myself.