HKH Law LLC

We hired Helen to handle my wife’s non-profit creation. After an initial consultation, we were excited and thought Helen will do a great job with the process. As time went on, our confidence in her ability and willingness to help began to wane quickly. After remitting a big payment in September, it took two months before we saw any progress. In those two months, she mentioned other law engagements that would take up considerable time that may possibly delay our process. This was not forewarned in the consultation and not informed to us until we already paid a massive fee. It felt like our request was less important and that we as a client were of less value to her. After sending her an email to express our frank concerns, she immediately processed the filing of the non-profit with the Secretary of State. We felt that we had to stay on top of her constantly to get the job done. The very reason why we paid her was not just to have her handle the process correctly, but also to free us from the time commitment of doing it ourselves. And yet, the constant reminding made us feel like we were still “working” ourselves but losing a large chunk of money as a result. It got worse. Then, in the end, she said she was unable to execute the application process to the IRS for my wife’s non-profit because the wording of the document we gave her about the particular Sports organization’s requirements insinuated that she couldn’t help in this situation, but instead advised us to join the overarching pre-existing Sport’s non-profit organization. It made no sense to us as the CEO of the Sport made it clear that we needed to file with the IRS as a 501c3, not just with the SoS. After relaying the message to the CEO, he replied to us that we are to file a standalone organization that will then be accepted into the Sport association by membership. After sharing this clarified message with Helen, we received no response or help whatsoever until we finally asked for a refund as if she was trying to find an escape plan from her duties by having us initiate the request. This step was CRUCIAL in the timing of launching her non-profit so that she can begin collecting grants. Instead, we lost $1,150 to lawyer fees for a simple filing with the Secretary of State which we could have done ourselves in a matter of minutes. While she did refund the remainder of the retainer fee, we basically wasted 4 months and we are now back to square one. Later, we discovered that my wife’s name was misspelled in the filing to SoS, which costed us more to amend. Lastly, we found her ad in the Korean directory, but found out she is not fluent in Korean. We were okay with this, but it felt misleading from the beginning and we should have trusted our instinct. UPDATE: I have since called another lawyer through my work connections and the guy has already provided me with Bylaws within ONE DAY and anticipates to file the 1023-EZ IRS form for Nonprofit by the end of the WEEK! The overall fee will be $99! I do not recommend working with Helen. 2ND UPDATE 2/6: After just two weeks of submission on my own, the IRS has approved my wife's nonprofit! Just TWO weeks and cost ZERO. Do not do business with Helen!