JKZ Law Firm is absolutely outstanding! They guided me through the entire estate planning process including will, power of attorney, health care directive and made sure every detail was covered. The level of professionalism, clarity, and care they provided was truly over the charts. What really stood out was how approachable and thorough they were. They explained everything in a way that was easy to understand and gave me complete confidence and peace of mind that my affairs are in order. If you want a team that combines exceptional legal expertise with genuine care for their clients, JKZ Law Firm is amazing! read more

Exceptional Legal Team - JKZ Saved My Family When I contacted Joe at JKZ LLP in 2024, I was facing the most devastating period of my life. What began as an attempt at an amicable separation turned into a nightmare when my ex-husband hired an aggressive litigator and spent ​hundreds of thousands of dollars to weaponize the court system against me and our minor child. Despite co-owning our home and paying the mortgage for 15 years, he locked my daughter and me out of my own home, forcing us to live out of my car. My ex refused court orders to seek employment, using unemployment as a tactic to avoid child support. (There were no affairs or betrayals. Simply a woman who no longer wanted to participate in a marriage with a controlling, abusive husband.) Joe and his team​ responded to my crisis with genuine compassion and expertise. They understood the trauma we were experiencing and created a clear, detailed strategy to protect my daughter and me. While opposing counsel tried to escalate every situation, ​S​tan and Hazel remained steadfast collaborators, never losing sight of what truly mattered: the wellbeing of my daughter. This firm's focus on your children's best interests sets them apart. They don't just practice family law, they understand families. Their combination of legal excellence and genuine care made all the difference. If you're facing a difficult family law situation, especially one involving children, please call JKZ. They are everything you want in legal representation: skilled, strategic, compassionate, and committed to protecting what matters most. Thank you to Joe, Stan, Hazel, Marlene, and Cinthia. You gave us our lives back.​ read more

Look elsewhere. I had the same experience as Peter A. They overcharge and churn your account to charge for things that you did not authorize. THe billing department is separate from the attorneys and the right hand does not know what the left had is doing. They continued to charge me after I fired them. read more

I worked with JKZ on the subjects of family law and estate. I found them to be a comprehensive firm with expertise in all parts of family matters. In family law (divorce and custody) what set Hazel and Joseph apart from other attorneys is their focus on peace and well being of children. When there was an opportunity to pick a fight and potentially rake in additional short term billing, they chose the path of firm but nice collaboration with the other party. When the other party was looking to escalate Hazel was firm and focused on the things that mattered the most. As a result I got 50/50 custody of my child and the processes didn't drag out for years and years like I have heard from other divorced parents. read more

I am being nice by giving them two stars instead of one, but only because I think their problems are just incompetence rather than any bad intent. My wife needed to get a trust to address some real estate/estate planning issues. She had very specific things that she wanted the trust to do (nothing too complex), and was very clear about those. We were referred to Vanessa Sundin at this office. We met with her a number of times, and she seemed quite knowledgeable, if not always the best listener. She prepared a trust document, but despite our multiple meetings and draft iterations, the document was way more complex than necessary, and did not even do what my wife had asked for it to do. It simply did not work. At that point we just said, "stop," and let her know we were going to go elsewhere to get the trust. We reluctantly paid for the work she had done (thousands of dollars) even though it was unsatisfactory. She offered to do more work at no charge to try to fix the document (her email on this was very clear). She apparently did more work on it, but we never got anything final or acceptable, and never agreed to pay anything more. My wife got a trust done (quickly and easily) by another firm. A few months later, we got an invoice from JKZ for the work she had done AFTER we had stopped the process. (More thousands of dollars.) Around then we learned that she was no longer in the office, but apparently she had not communicated to the billing people that she was not charging for that work. As for the invoice, we were like, "uh, no," and sent back to them the whole email string, and the issue seemed to go away. But now, months later, we just got ANOTHER email asking for payment of our "outstanding invoice" of thousands of dollars, again for the work that was never authorized. So it looks like they didn't fix the problem with their records. Bottom line: they didn't/couldn't do what was asked, and they keep trying to bill for work that was never authorized. If anything, they owe us a refund. Total incompetence. I would never use them or refer them to anyone. read more

JKZ was a wonderful partner for me during my divorce. Hazel Bradshaw was the only person involved in the process that thought it important that I have visitation and custody with my children that I now have. I strongly recommened this firm and Hazel in particular. read more

We used JKZ to establish 2 family trusts and I was very impressed with their counsel and execution. Yulissa Zulaica was the partner who took a lot of time and effort to craft a solution that worked for the trusts. She advised us around legal and tax strategies, succession planning, contingency planning, cross border implications as well as other important decisions around saving, long term goal setting and charitable contributions that really helped us better prepare for our future. Our family is very relieved and comfortable that we have the right legal and tax structure in place to support our long term goals and objectives I would also like to commend the junior staff who supported Yulissa Zulaica with document preparation, appointments, notary, billing, etc. From start to finish, this very detailed process was seamless and we felt very comfortable working with JKZ. This can be a very involved decision and ensuring you have the right partners is incredibly important - I was very happy to have chosen JKZ. read more

I was disappointed. I had worked well with an Lawyer who had her own practice in 2008 to develop a trust. In 2024 I wanted a restatement of my Trust, Will, POA and Medical POA due to various life events that had occurred. The original lawyer was now part of Johnston, Kinney and Zulaica. I contacted the law firm and described my updates - providing a document (2 new executors/appointees - and updates to funds distribution). An introductory meeting was held with a new set of lawyers, they retrieved the paperwork from 2008 and I was informed of the estimated cost range and agreed to move forward. There was minimal communication needed and the restatement was made. The disappointment I have is that the actual costs came in 65% over the top end of the cost estimate - with no proactive communications that the law firm was exceeding the estimate, why it was exceeding the cost, or ways to keep costs down. read more

Deb was recommended by another client of hers. I sent emails and got limited response back. She promised to touch base but after I followed up twice, I never heard back. Ended up using a great lawyer in Palm Springs. read more

This review is for attorney Hazel Bradshaw. I don't write yelp reviews but I am writing this because I want people to know what a horrible attorney she is and hopefully you will not make the same mistake I made in hiring her. I wish I could give her zero stars but yelp makes give you give one star. I found Hazel after reading great reviews for her when she was with All For the Family Legal Clinic. However, Hazel bounces from law firm to law firm. In the short time I worked with her she switched from the Family Law Group to Johnston, Kinney & Zulaica. Just as she has no loyalty to any law firms, she has no loyalty to her clients. I should have seen the red flags when there was no email from the Family Law Group announcing her departure. She text and called her clients to let them know she was switching law firms again. I received exorbitant bills from both law firms and she did NOTHING to help my case. The day before a very important hearing regarding my child, Hazel informed me that she would object to a declaration sent by the opposing party less than 24 hours before the hearing. Not only were we not properly served, but did not even have a chance to read the declaration. However, the day of the hearing Hazel said NOTHING when the judge brought up the declaration even though Hazel assured me that she would object to it. There were so many lies in the opposing party's declaration (that she could have easily proven) but because of very clear bias against me, the judge believed his lies and some of his untruths ended up in the court's finding and order. I did the majority of the work for her including writing my own declarations, and doing the work I was paying her to do. When I asked her to include very important information, she did not include it nor did she inform the judge in the hearings. She would tell me the judge doesn't want to know all the details of every incident. But how can a judge understand what is happening if they are getting only one side (which is a false side) of a case? Despite my repeated requests for her to provide the truth and facts, which I have plenty of evidence to support, she did not. She also sent the FOAH that she prepared to the opposing party first, not giving me the proper chance to review it first, showing no regard for me as her client. Despite being completely unsatisfied with her work, I continued with her hoping she would get better and help my case. However, just days before another hearing she decided to drop my case. She completely left me hanging and provided no substantial reason. She was extremely unprofessional in how she spoke to me, even raising her voice. When I calmly asked her questions, she would become agitated and frustrated easily. I found that the best way to deal with argumentative people is not to stoop to their level, and even though she tried to provoke an argument with me, I remained professional when she clearly was not. Overall, I would NOT recommend Hazel Bradshaw to anyone. She does not care about her clients. She will leave you hanging and like so many other family law attorneys, she is only in it for the money. read more

First off, I know diddly squat about legal matters, but I knew my partner and I needed a trust so we would be protected in case anything should happen to us. At the time marriage wasn't legal so we needed quite a detailed trust. DLK was wonderful. They explained everything to us in terms we could understand and helped us every step of the way. They explained what would change should we become domestic partners or get married should it become legal, which was really helpful. Also, when we had some issues with San Mateo County reassessing our home, DLK took care of it right away. When we needed medical directives for our mother DLK sent staff out to the rest home to have her sign them. That's pretty amazing service. Flash forward a couple of years and we are indeed married and want to make some changed to the trust. It was so wonderful to be able to call DLK and have them so happy to help us out. I do have to give Andrea a huge shout out because she has helped us through everything and is an amazing person to work with. If you need to work out your trust, I would go with DLK. Regardless of who you work directly with there you are going to get really great service. read more

This law firm rocks. I lost my life partner of 22 years and Yuli, and all the supportive staff, walked me through my plans for my estate. Efficient, compassionate, funny, approachable, competent. I never felt so cared for. Living Trust binder in hand, instructions as to my next steps. I left with peace of mind. That is a rare thing. And I know they will be there for me throughout my life, helping me keep my estate, wishes and assets fine tuned as my life changes. Yuli and all the staff helped me through the most difficult time of my life. read more

So far, very good. in our first meeting, Deb Kinney found several errors in our accountant's taxes, and had some very good advice. I met Deb Kinney at one of her seminars last year, but she suggested we didn't need to meet until after the supreme court ruling on DOMA. Great support staff too. Merged recently into JKZ, LLP at 180 sansome. Added: 25 May 2014. Our attorney of 36 yrs, was unable to put together an updated trust needed after our recent marriage, so we are now in Deb's hands for Trust work to own the house, minimize capital gains if we sell, and provide for a charitable trust to minimize problems in the future. Seems very solid. Communication is outstanding with support staff and Deb when necessary. If Deb has someone more important and gives me a couple days notice, I can live with that easily..... read more

Excellent lawyers. Thorough, trust-worthy, and professional.

Deb Kinney was referred to me by my accountant and I made an appointment 6 weeks ahead of time to meet with her. The day before my meeting, by email I was informed that I would be meeting with someone else. When I asked why, I was told there was a scheduling conflict. Someone else, apparently more important, was coming in to sign forms. Either he made his appointment over 6 weeks ago, in which case I should have been given a different time, or he bumped me. Either way, not impressed with the offhand way it was all dealt with. I want to work with someone who views me as a valuable client. Also not helped by the fact that the next available time that would have worked for me was going to be another 6 weeks away. read more

I called 3 times over a 10 day period (specifically for Debra), and left messages each time. I wanted to secure them for Estate Planning, and a Will/ POA. No return phone call, zero follow up. Pretty disappointing..... read more

Deb is one of the most passionate people I've worked with. She has taken care of our trusts and properties for many years. Completely trustworthy and honest. read more