§ 01 · Lawyerd · For proprietary trading firms

When the reviews become the weapon, your funded program is the target.

We challenge and remove fake reviews, defamatory "scam" hit-pieces and clone sites aimed at proprietary trading firms — on lawful grounds, counsel-led, confidential by design.

Request a 48-hour confidential audit

Signed by Ihor Makushinsky. NDA-first. No call required to start.

Counsel-led NDA-first By appointment
§ 02 · Why this matters

A scam accusation becomes your top brand result before you can answer it.

For a proprietary trading firm, the threat to growth is rarely a regulator — it is the review page. A wave of one-star reviews and "scam" posts from failed-challenge traders, affiliates or a competitor can turn a search for your firm into a wall of warnings, and prospective funded traders quietly never sign up.

Generic ORM agencies treat this as marketing — paid removal, soft requests, brand-management theatre. Big-law treats it as litigation — billed by the hour, scaled for court, not for volume. Both are wrong tools.

What works is fast, lawful, documented action under named statute — defamation law where reviews are false, DMCA §512 and trademark against clone sites, GDPR Article 17 for EU data subjects. Filed by counsel. Reviewed before submission. That is the whole of our practice.

We act for legitimate firms targeted by fakes, clones and defamation — and we are explicit about the line: we do not remove genuine customer criticism, accurate reporting, or lawful regulatory warnings, and we say so at intake.

§ 03 · Our approach

Three constraints, held together.

Speed

Six-day median to removal.

From authorised takedown notice to confirmed delisting. Active matters reviewed daily. Volume operations scale weekly.

Legality

Every removal under named statute.

Berne, EU 2019/790, DMCA Title 17 §512, GDPR Article 17. We do not pay for removal. We do not threaten. We file.

Discretion

Counsel-signed engagements.

Communications encrypted. NDA-first standard. No marketing material includes your name unless you explicitly authorise it.

§ 04 · Operational partners

Lawyerd is a partner in Cloudflare's Brand Protection programme with API-level access for takedown operations on Cloudflare-protected domains. This is not a public-tier integration — it is a controlled-access channel for verified enforcement practitioners.

Cloudflare · Brand Protection · API access
700
Removals in 20 days · single enforcement matter
~85%
Success rate on qualified filings
30+
Jurisdictions under active practice
§ 06 · Counsel of record

Every engagement reviewed and signed by counsel.

Ihor Makushinsky
Senior counsel · in IP and compliance practice since 2014

Eight years as in-house IP specialist at Plarium (the studio behind RAID: Shadow Legends), then founded Lawyerd in 2021 to scale enforcement work. Mentor at Techstars; Entrepreneur in Residence at Temple University.

→ Full counsel profile
§ 07 · What these matters look like

A review attack is rarely one review — it is a pattern.

Coordinated 1-star wave "Scam" blog seeding Clone sites on your name

The recurring shape: a burst of one-star reviews and "scam" posts about your firm seeded across Trustpilot, forums and throwaway blogs — often after a competitor dispute or a wave of failed challenges — while clone sites run paid ads on your brand to skim signups. We triage every URL into what is genuinely actionable (fake, defamatory, infringing or impersonating) versus lawful criticism that stays, then challenge the first set under named statute and escalate clones to host and registrar. The practice's track record on qualified filings is in §05 above; we do not publish invented per-firm figures.

Method, not a guarantee · outcomes depend on facts and jurisdiction
§ 08 · Engagement

Three shapes the practice takes.

Starter

Reactive standing capacity.

Routine media monitoring and reactive removal work. Monthly retainer. Suitable for firms with steady operations and occasional media exposure.

By appointment
Active

Continuous engagement.

For firms with ongoing media exposure across multiple jurisdictions. Direct counsel access. Bi-weekly reporting.

By appointment
Crisis

Surge capacity.

For an active media incident or regulator inquiry. Daily reporting. Time-bounded engagement.

By appointment
Engagement scoped after audit. Pricing discussed under NDA.
§ 09 · Begin

Request a 48-hour confidential audit.

We will surface 3–5 live attacks against your brand, signed by counsel, without obligation.

Reviewed personally by Ihor Makushinsky · Response within one business day