Reviews

I couldn't recommend a better landlord attorney. Emilie is clever, shrewd, and an expert in her field. Based on her extensive experience and very current knowledge of DC's ever evolving Housing laws, she gave excellent advice and opinions whenever I asked for guidance. As a small individual landlord, I feel very fortunate that she was available to help me.

Emilie was super helpful in explaining DC landlord tenant laws and talking through several types of scenarios, pros and cons and associated risks. Very easy to talk to and she explained things very clearly!

Consulted for DC HUD landlord/tenant concern and was very helpful, prompt and encouraging.

She is very knowledgeable and personable. I plan to hire her in the near future.

Attorney Fairbanks was very effective at getting a non-communicative tenant back on track with rent payments. She and her staff are very responsive and the process was clear, easy and efficient, not to mention very reasonably priced.

I searched on the internet and found/hired Emilie Fairbanks based on a lot of her positive customer reviews. I am a first generation immigration and a single mother. The case is very difficult for me. When we met, she was very nice, kind, and easy to talk to. At the same time, she was very intelligent, sharp, and tough opponent. She has a talent for getting to the root of things quickly and looks at both sides of a legal issue. She has extensive experience in landlord-tenant law in the Washington DC area and is extremely knowledgeable about the laws and the process. She gave me advice and opinions. She is truly a caring as well as an outstanding lawyer. I really appreciated her.

We hired Emilie to get rid of difficult tenants. She succeeded where we failed trying on our own. We work abroad so it’s hard to come to court so we put off even calling a lawyer but Emilie took care of everything and worked with the time difference to have phone calls with us so we could stay informed.

Very Professional! Extremely knowledgeable about the laws and the process. Always available to give advice and opinions. Willing to follow instructions and wishes. Considering how terrible it is to have to deal with an eviction, working with Ms. Fairbanks was always the highlight of the experience! Highly recommend!

In my case, I felt the feckless nature and poor Judgement of this attorney. I felt that Emilie Fairbanks had Extremely low ethics. After picking a horrible tenant, picking a horrible attorney only exacerbated the situation. She has a "wait-and-see" approach that leaves you under-prepared for dealing with horrible tenants. She has poor follow-through and you will need to stay on top of everything. Emilie's communication is so lacking. She does not take responsibility for her mistakes, i.e., filing late, delaying process, missing court, not returning phone calls). Emilie lacks simple due diligence that will delay your process and allow her to collect more attorney fees. The only winner in your case will be Emilie or the other side, She made mistakes that only benefited her bottom line/attorney fees. At the end of this experience--I felt taken advantage of. We all make mistakes, but her mistakes seemed pre-meditated in that they allowed her to drag out my case while I lost money and continued paying her attorney fees. I Before signing with Emilie--push back and establish some clear expectations. Demand that she talk about the next steps and push for a clear understanding of her approach and strategy. She will attempt to avoid this by saying that the courts are unpredictable, I learned that the courts are actually very predictable--especially for an attorney with as many years as she has been practicing law. And if things start to look strange/questionable--fire her.

Emilie has been our lawyer for several years now She always gives excellent advice. She will go to court and litigate if necessary, but pursues all avenues first. I particularly like that because it means we are not paying unnecessary lawyer fees. Emilie's knowledge of the District of Columbia's landlord tenant laws is far reaching and has been valuable in helping us navigate through the DC government, in particularly, DCHA.

I should have hired Emilie sooner. I was timid to take legal action because I didn't think I had any legal ground to stand on (my unit failed its initial inspection), but Emilie was able to start the eviction process and get my tenant to finally vacate.

I hired Emilie last year to help me evict a problem tenant for non-paymet of rent. I was dealing with a sick parent with stage IV cancer at the time, and did NOT want to deal with the tenant issue. Emilie was very upfront with me from the beginning, handled everything, kept me informed along the way, and within the 30-day window of serving the eviction notice, my tenant left. I would absolutely work with her again (she's helping me with screening prospective tenants at this time and drawing up a lease for me), and I have referred her to friends and family. She is such a pleasure to work with. Rest assured that you're in good hands with Emilie!