Solid. Strong. Successful.
Q: Western New York personal injury attorney Ross Cellino was suspended for six months in early June of this year.Cellno, a partner in the firm of Celinno & Barnes, has been highly controversial in recent years because of prolific advertising and aggressive client solicitation practices. Based upon allegations from the mid- to late-1990s, the Appellate Division Justices reviewed numerous findings from the Department's Grievance Committee, upholding three instances of violation of the Code of Professional Responsibility. The three violations included agreeing to pay expenses for a prospective client to induce them to retain the law firm; loaning money to a client through a lending company they owned; and failing to disclose to the client their ownership of that company. Several violations stemming from these
A: There's something about that pair that always made me think personal-injuries lawyers were sleazier than used car salesmen. I was wondering what happened to the deer-in-the-headlights half of the tag-team. For a few years there, every time I drove to Buffalo & Orchard Park for a Bills game there seemed to be more and more C&B billboards along the freeways, they were doing more advertising than the Big Three automakers combined. But now all I'm seeing is "The Barnes Half (err, Group)" trying to recruit injured motorcyclists with lame radio jingles and tv spots.