Grellas Shah LLP

David and his team at Grellas Shah handled our rounds of financing and corporate restructuring with exceptional responsiveness and attention to detail. We needed a stock split, dual-class charter amendment, and a comprehensive investment agreement with extensive investor protections and governance provisions. They turned around complex documents quickly despite tight timelines and navigated multiple rounds of redlines from the other side's counsel without missing a beat. The team was always available to answer questions and explain the tradeoffs behind different legal positions. Highly recommend for any stage startups that need sophisticated corporate work.

Highly recommended for everyone.

Case number RG19002294, Alameda County Superior Court, California. JAMS Fee arbitration. Ref No. 5460000673 I had an employment case. My first lawyer left my case and she put a lien on my case in order to get her fees. I hired Grellas Shah LLP to finish up the employment case and fight the lien my first lawyer put on my case. Dhaivat Shah, David Siegel and Joseph Guzzetta participated in my case. The KEY in my case was a term sheet, a short version of a settlement agreement, that was signed at a mediation. It was NOT signed by all parties. So the judge in employment case ruled it not enforceable. I signed it because I was “pressured” and I was lied to by my first lawyer. I was made to believe that it was just a document to sign to show we made progress because the mediation was about to end soon. The full and complete settlement agreement would be sent to me a few weeks later and if I don’t like that one, I can simply walk away from it and there would be NO settlement. But I don’t have evidence to prove that. No video with audio or written record of what I was told at the mediation. Dhaivat told me I had a strong case (against my first lawyer who put a lien on my case for her fees). About a potential fee arbitration, he said “If you win (and I think you will win), you can seek reimbursement of your attorney's fees and other costs but it is not guaranteed that you will get 100% of them reimbursed.” He gave my case to Joseph Guzzetta, who represented me in the fee arbitration. About the cost of the fee arbitration to remove my first lawyer’s lien on my case, Dhaivat said “It could be 20-30k." unless the other party tries to expand the issues and the judge doesn't stop her. He later said it could be 20-30k if it is a narrow arbitration. But when I questioned him about the cost later he told me my arbitration was not a “narrow” one. The real cost, the fees Grellas Shah billed me, exceeded 120K. I was given a good offer before the fee arbitration, Dhaivat did recommend to take that offer. I made decisions based on the wrong information I got. E.g. I had a strong case and the cost would be low unless the other party escalates. I gave a counter offer. But the other party went straight to fee arbitration and I lost all the money in dispute and I had to pay attorney’s fee for both sides. A loss of about 440K. I could have got about 210K had I accepted their last offer before the arbitration. In the end, I filed for bankruptcy. We didn’t want the signed termsheet to be admitted as evidence, but the judge ruled against me. It was NOT signed by all parties to settle the employment case, but it was still a binding contract, I learned this myself during the hearing. Too late! Imagine the SHOCK I got! I made my decisions based on wrong info i was given, e.g. the strength of my case (I got a bad case ACTUALLY), the REAL cost etc. I checked the bills and I believed some hours billed to be questionable so I reached out to Grellas Shah LLP and said I had plans about fee arbitration and maybe more. The law firm terminated our attorney client relation immediately! (I wrote this review on 4/25) I celebrate my birthday on 4/25 and today I’m turning 40 and my “birthday gift” is the "order of discharge" letter of my bankruptcy case. I am doing my PhD, so I get only a little money a month as stipend. I had a temporary working permit and worked for a company about 3 years before I was wrongfully terminated. I constantly worked overtime but I was never compensated for those overtime hours. So I worked hard and got paid little for about 3 years, then the employment case and this fee arbitration case lasted about 4 years and maybe a little more. In total, more than 7 years, and the little money I saved , about 30k or so, by eating cheap food, like McChicken (it was 1 dollar apiece back then), ramen noodles etc. and the pain and frustration and anger etc all these sufferings. In the end, my life got ruined.