‘Predatory’ law firm shuts down after AG investigation
/
A solicitation letter that was sent from Tenants Counsel Network to New Yorkers facing eviction, attempting to convince tenants to hire the firm on retainer. Screenshot taken from the Office of the Attorney General
By Noah Powelson
A New York law firm accused of scamming tenants facing eviction, including some in Queens, out of more than $170,000 while failing to provide legal representation will shut down after reaching a deal with the state attorney general, who uncovered the alleged fraud during a recent investigation.
New York Attorney General Letitia James reached an agreement on Thursday with Tenants Counsel Network, a law firm that James said preyed on tenants facing eviction to retain its “specialty practice” without having any landlord-tenant attorneys on staff. Tenants were required to sign up for a monthly subscription fee only to find they had no way to contact their supposed attorneys, who frequently missed eviction hearings, according to the AG.
TCN, which is owned and operated by financier Shloime Feig and real estate attorney Aryeh Weber, is required to refund $172,257 to former clients, pay $35,000 in penalties to New York State and must dissolve its practice by July 31. TCN must also provide at least 60 days’ written notice to all existing clients with active court cases that the firm will be closing.
According to the OAG and court documents, an investigation was opened into TCN in May 2024 after the attorney general received complaints about the firm.
TCN began advertising as a for-profit law firm in December 2023, describing itself as a “specialty practice” with “a comprehensive and nuanced command of New York City’s housing laws,” and claimed “thousands of dollars of overcharges recovered” for tenants.
In reality, TCN did not have any attorneys with expertise in landlord-tenant law on its staff, and also featured fictional testimonials about their practice from fake customers on their website.
To find clients, TCN obtained a list of tenants facing eviction in the city by scraping data from the court’s online filing system. TCN bypassed Housing Court’s captcha protection system to obtain the data, which the OAG said violated the terms of service of the Unified Court System’s website.
TCN sent nearly 35,600 solicitation letters to those tenants offering legal services from “experienced attorneys.” In some cases, the letter from TCN arrived before the actual court papers, and the predatory law firm served as the first people to notify tenants that they were at risk of eviction.
Around 1,100 of these letters were signed by an attorney who did not exist, according to the OAG.
TCN case managers also repeatedly called tenants numerous times a day, the attorney general said, and falsely claimed TCN could offer subsidized legal services. Client managers also did not allow tenants to speak to an attorney until after they agreed to sign onto the subscription fee.
TCN only ever had six attorneys at most at any one time, but case managers reportedly told tenants they had “too many to name.”
When tenants were persuaded to sign on with TCN, they encountered immediate problems, the AG said. Even when TCN scheduled court appearances, clients found their attorneys regularly failed to appear. The OAG investigation reportedly found over a dozen instances where TCN attorneys missed court appearances.
Clients also had little or no ability to speak to the attorneys supposedly representing them, and many reported they were never called back after agreeing to the subscription.
One client, labeled as Ms. E in the agreement, had retained TCN for more than four months when she asked a Housing Court judge for permission to fire them because she had never met with an attorney.
The agreement between TCN and OAG took effect on May 20. TCN now has until July 31, 2026 to close its cases and stop representing clients.
“When tenants seek legal counsel, they should be able to trust that their lawyers are going to help them,” James said in a statement. “Housing is a stabilizing force for New York families, and this law firm preyed on New Yorkers who stood to lose it. Today, my office is putting hard-earned money back in New Yorkers’ pockets and making sure that this law firm cannot harm any tenant again.”
Feig and Weber reportedly got the idea for the law firm’s business model from a disbarred attorney who was busted for running a Ponzi scheme, according to the OAG.
According to the agreement, Tony Diab was disbarred after he was found to have mishandled a $375,000 settlement payment meant for a client. In a 2019 Nevada Supreme Court decision, the court found Diab redirected the settlement payment directly into his own personal bank account.
According to the OAG agreement, Diab started a California law firm after he was disbarred, which purported to assist consumers with debt relief for a monthly subscription fee. He started this firm with the help of another attorney who still had their license, according to the OAG.
The firm was partially financed through Feig, who worked with merchant cash advance companies that provided quick funding for businesses. It was from this initial business partnership that Feig learned of Diab’s schemes, and the two reportedly had several discussions about the business model of running a law firm as a non-attorney.
Feig and Diab eventually had a falling out after Diab failed to comply with merchant cash advance agreements, and the disbarred declared bankruptcy after admitting he was running a Ponzi scheme through his California law firm.
But while Diab was finished, Feig took his ideas and founded the Consumer Legal Group, a for-profit law firm incorporated in New York on May 18, 2022. The company was eventually approved by the New York State Department of State to do business as TCN in December 2023.
However, law firms in New York must be owned and managed by licensed attorneys, and Feig was not an attorney. To get around this, Feig brought on his family friend Weber, a licensed attorney who primarily practiced real estate transactions, to act as founding partner, president and was legally responsible for managing the firm.
As part of the agreement between TCN and OAG, Weber will also be required to close his law office, pay $10,000 in penalties to New York State and resign from practicing law in New York.
