John Forderhase

Another Edit:
Do not work with John.
He won't complete the work and will charge you when you contact him to ask where the work is.

He quoted us $1k and ended up charging us over $4k and not completing the work. He referenced a set of bylaws I do not even have access to. He said he would redo it - but he never did.

This was after babysitting him ever 3-6 weeks for a year to find out if he had completed the task he said he would.

Other lawyers have quoted me $700 and 2 hours of work. Pretty unbelievable.

I wish that I hadn't given John the chance to right himself, now I'm out $3k of my own money for a job that was not done. As a single woman in this economy - you can imagine that is a hefty sum.

EDIT:

John did follow through with this, and was able to complete the work we asked.

Our coop asked Johns office to review an amendment to our bylaws and let us know if it violated a specific RCW or any other laws or statutes regarding by law amendments. We also provided a specific budget for the task. Johns office went over budget without notifying us, and 9 months later we still don't have an answer.
In person John is personable and kind, and clearly very knowledgable about co op law around Seattle. However over email there was a lot of confusion, and he is still asking for additional documents that were not asked for in the 9 months his office has been looking at this issue for us.
I will acknowledge that our side took some time and back and forth getting everyone line up for payment etc, but that was over six months ago now.
Because we are now over budget and because people in the coop have lost faith that there is a resolution to this issue, and not just a constant back and forth where John doesn't acknowledge or answer our query or direction we may not resolve this as a coop.

I had a great pleasure working with Lisa. My home couldn't be closed on time without her and Forderhase's expertise and experience. My co-op purchase was a tricky type of transaction with a tight time window; Lisa's hard work and professionalism made it possible! Highly recommend!