Reviews

Ken Gonzalez is a pro in his work. I dealt with him and his staff twice! Very friendly and fast service! Always answered my emails and calls in a timely manner! I highly recommend them!

The best choice you can make. Professional personal intelligent and knows how to run a caring business.

We had a very great experience with John Merlino and everyone that works with him. My husband is bed bound and he came to see him in New Jersey to make this sale go very smoothly. Thank You !!

Fast responses, knowledgeable staff. Highly recommend!

I want to share my experience with this company, If you are a first time homebuyer, John Merlino is the absolute attorney you need. He takes the time and explains every little detail to you, and answers any questions you have at anytime. He is very responsive, attentive and flexible! The most important thing is he is top of everything, reads everything thoroughly, and very meticulous about the language in the contracts to protect his clients at every angle! Also Girls are very attentive,friendly and helpful. Thank you for everything .

A professional real estate attorney and staff on Staten Island. I was extremely satisfied with their performance. Thank you !

I recently had the pleasure of working with John Merlino Esq. and his incredible team, and I can confidently say that they exceeded my highest expectations. Their professionalism, expertise, and unwavering commitment to achieving outstanding results truly set them apart from the rest. From start to finish, my experience with this outstanding team was nothing short of exceptional.

Polite, professional, and effective counseling for complex house closing.

Ken Gonzalez and office staff were very diligent, kind thorough and communicated well every step of the way in our home selling process!

Had a horrible experience with John Merlino. I used him for a first time home purchase and my experience with him got progressively worse from start to finish. First, when I received a copy of his retainer agreement via email, I noted it reads that special circumstances will incur additional fees beyond the "flat fee" he had quoted me over the phone. In an effort to guage potential cost amid all the other house/closing costs, I replied to his email simply asking him what might be considered a special circumstance. His exact reply to me via email was, "The circumstances would be if you become an absolute nightmare to deal with and call me 10 times a day." His response should have given me a hint as to his unapproachable and unprofessional demeanor, but I dismissed it as a possible joke at the time. Later, my mortgage lender advised me to ask John about including a certain stipulation in my contract. When I called John to ask him his thoughts on the lender's suggestion, his response to me was, "Lady, I've done this 300,000 times." It was clear to me that John perceived any question to be a bother and did not want to take the time to explain anything or do any work. Shortly thereafter, he emailed me to say the office lost my retainer agreement. I resubmitted it. The office then called me to schedule my appointment to sign the contract with John. They said they couldn't schedule anything later than 4 PM, so I left work early to make the appointment; as I was on the way there, his office staff called me (less than an hour before the appointment, at 3:30 PM) to ask me to come in later (despite initially telling me they couldn't meet later), stating the reason was that John suddenly had "an emergency closing for a different client." Prior to meeting with John, I had emailed him to request a copy of my contract so that I could review it ahead of time. He refused to provide me access to my file. His reply to me was, "That's not how we manage our files. We do not release our work product." When I met with him in person, he began to quickly verbally skim my contract and I again asked if I can please have a copy of the contract to review more closely before signing it. He accused me of not trusting him. I explained that, being my first time home purchase, I just wanted to make sure I knew what I was signing and that my request did not mean I didn't trust him. He insisted it was a sign of distrust, said he would no longer represent me ("we aren't the firm for you"), and abruptly walked out of his conference room. Two people who had come with me witnessed this encounter and we were all astounded by how curt and unprofessional he was. As a lawyer, John should recognize the importance of someone reading a contract before they sign it. An individual with such a seemingly sensitive ego as to dismiss a client over a simple request to receive a contract from the client's own file is absurd, and it is clearly evident he does not care about his clients. I called two other law firms afterwards to hire a new attorney to handle the closing, and both attorneys stated they have no issue with providing contracts to clients and that clients are in fact entitled to their files. I did not have any issues with the next lawyer. Hope this review helps others to steer clear of John Merlino, as he's a nightmare to "work" with. I enourage everyone to also look at his other negative reviews before making a decision.