Donald R Holben & Associates, APC

I write this review with the highest of honor, praise and respect. I have used the attorney’s at Donald R. Holben and Associates, APC for my legal issues and I must say if anyone I know or even a stranger were to ask, I would refer them to this office. In my experience with this office I felt like I was the most important client the firm had. The greetings from wonderful ladies in the front office are warm and extremely caring from the time I walk in the office to the moment I leave. When it came to making certain that my issues held the same level of care that I needed I felt like more than a client I felt as though I was dealing with friends. Mr. Holben personally spent time sharing and keeping me informed on all progress and made certain that I understood what was before me and the best directions to take. The other associates who assisted with the case made me feel equally important and with confidence made me comfortable from the first to the last meeting. Mrs. Holben is quite simply a beautiful spirit who just has a very special knack for making me feel special, important and not the impersonal feeling that I have felt in the past with other attorneys or businesses. In this office there was that element that felt trustworthy and I was valued like in the year’s past where the personal service mattered, my best interests were definitely a priority. I feel confident that of all the choices of attorney’s in this city, Holben and associates will remain my attorney’s for years to come and will receive my highest referral for any and all future legal matters.
Very respectfully,
Rev. Jerry C. Moore Sr.

In hindsight, I could have personally achieved what Mr. Holben and Mr. Rosenberry secured in my particular case, however the oversight of knowledgable lawyers can be beneficial. In my case, this firm wasn’t beneficial.
Moreover, I lost much more than I gained.
Hopefully this firm will re-​evaluate the way they conduct themselves with regards to over-​promising and under-​delivering.
Good luck guys!

I hired Mr Rosenbery for a divorce and custody battle. Worst decision I made. He over-​promised, under-​delivered, and made several mistakes that I then had to PAY for him to resolve. He wouldn’t own-​up to or even address them with me. Additionally, he proceeded to hit on my and ask me out before the ink was even dry on my divorce papers. I was appalled, but we were too-​far in for me to seek alternate representation. So in continued to politely decline, hoping he’d get the hint and keep it professional. Instead, I became a second-​class client while he, presumably, moved on to bigger fish.
I also agree with the others — the billables were out of control. Hire a firm that will respect your funds.

My husband & I chose to use Holben & Associates for our discrimination suit against an employer and Andrew was appointed to us. We knew going in that no matter what Attorney we chose, this is an expensive option to reach a resolution so we wrote as much information down from the beginning and tried to keep communications only through written documents to reduce email/​phone time. After 8 months, we went to mediation where Mr. Holben surprised us by actually driving all the way out and spending the entire day with us through mediation and didn’t charge us a dime to do so. We are happy with the way everything turned out and thrilled to have our lives back. Thanks so much to the team who worked hard to assist us!

On the home page
under Rate and review it reads as follows: Rate your attorney’s performance and write a review of your experience.
Avvo did not approve the following client review:
«On August 1, 2011 I signed an „Attorney-​Client Hourly Fee Retainer Agreement“ with Donald R. Holben & Associates, APC. Mr. Holben assigned Mr. Andrew A. Rosenberry to my case. During our attorney — client relationship over more than 3 years, the following violations of Rules of the Professional Conduct of the State Bar of California occurred: Rule 3 – 110, Rule 3 – 500 and Rule 3 – 510. In spite of the violations that I pointed out to them, they charged my Retainer Account just the same. I am willing to disclose the detailed records of the violations upon request.»

I’m going to have to agree with a majority of the reviewers that this law firm spends a lot of time «researching» matters in which they claim to be experts. The conversations many of these reviewers had were the exact same platitudes we received as our research bill doubled over the course of a few months. At one point Mr. DiRe went off on a tangent that was so wrong and so costly, their office had to write off a portion of the bill as DiRe obviously hadn’t read the files. We requested another attorney, but they do not seem to have one in that office, the best they could offer was a paralegal I feel was better qualified than DiRe. Am having another attorney review the settlement agreement DiRe claims to have written because I believe it was written by the opposing party and it does not seem to be in the client’s best interest. If you’re looking for a «bulldog» who knows the law, this firm is NOT it. An expensive waste of time.

Everyone here was very nice and professional. Overall, I had a good experience, however the payment was the biggest problem I had with them. Here’s the details: (1) they charge almost $ 300 per hour. (2) After I refilled the retainer, almost every time, Dan DiRe (my attorney) would write me a letter and it would cost $ 250. By the time the two week mark came around (which is the frequency they send bills out at), I would owe them most of the retainer.
I think the pricing is completely insane, but I signed up for it, so it is what it is. Otherwise, I enjoyed working with these attorneys, but please be prepared for strong pricing.

I am so glad to have found an attorney like Don Holben. I had a legal issue with my employer. Although my employer’s course of action regarding my situation seemed fair, it was reassuring to have Don go over my case and confirm that I wasn’t placing myself in jeopardy… which he did free of charge. Because of my experience, I recommended him to a friend who was wrongly terminated. My friend was very happy with the results of his case.
Later I used Don’s office to draw up a Will and Trust for me. I had been through the process with my mother and another lawyer, so I knew what to expect. His staff was professional, courteous and made me feel comfortable at every step.
The legal system can sometimes be a crap shoot… sometimes you feel wronged, but the law disagrees. I trust Don to be able to give me a good assessment of any legal situation I may find myself in.

This person on consultation was a joke.
Not once did he let prospective clients really talk about the real issues nor was he interested in what they wanted. He had a mission of his own and in 30 minutes only one minute of talking by prospective client occurred. $ 5000 retainer for two attorneys to work and NOT one. $ 500 an hr after that and no assurances of any kind they would fight for rights that have been violated. They wouldnt discuss the laws violated nor would they talk about a potential plan or method of attack with the courts. These people are legal crooks in my opinion and have no interest in what is right or wrong, if you couldn’t tell by the rolling eyes and racial comments coming from the helpers at the front who went behind some file cabinets to have a «private» conversation. When a child hears what you say and nowhere was anything nice, they really ought to be ashamed of themselves. But it’s okay to be nice to the white man in a suit that walks in for a consultation. Just the appearance of discrimination had me walking very quickly out that door. So discomforting that all they seemed to care about was money and not the clients. They want rich clients– not interested in justice for all– enough said.

I hired this firm to represent me on a wrongful termination issue. The only reason I hired them was because Mr. Holben assured me that my money (which was borrowed) would be used wisely and that it would be an easier remedy because I had a strong case. Instead, the money was spent on research, reading emails, and correspondence. They don’t tell you that they bill you for any inquiries you make about your case or any menial tasks they do that seemingly take longer than the average person, i.e. it takes 30 minutes to read an email?!?
Furthermore, they tell you the issue can be settled without litigation. And the money you spend presumably goes to doing so. However, your initial money goes to services that you could have just as well did yourself.
It took $ 2500+ to file a complaint to the DFEH, retain the right to sue and then write a demand letter to the entity being sued. I don’t understand this at all since they were probably using some standard format they already had on file. After all that, another lawyer tells me that demand letters are rejected 99% of the time (thanks for telling me before I paid all the money for a matter that was almost guaranteed to be settled out of court).
So now that my demand was rejected, I have 6 months to take action instead of the year I would have had after I retained the right to sue. Once I asked to suspend/​terminate services; I’m still getting bills. I had a little money left on the retainer. Now I have a $ 300+ bill for services that include, but not limited too, revisions, correspondences that I previously requested be stopped, re-​sending duplicate letters, etc.
I plan on filing a complaint about these ridiculous charges and lack-​luster services.

I hired Mr. Holben for what HE said would be a very simple matter, inexpensive and quick. He dragged it on for months saying they were doing «research». Not specific about what kind of «research». While working on my case I brought him another potential case not involving me directly. He took the second case and agreed not to bill me for it till it was over. When I started questioning the amount of research on the first case and the subsequent bill he stated I should get the first case over with so they could focus on the second case, so I hung in there while they «researched». Bottom line, they ran me up a huge bill, more than 3 times what was quoted on the first case for non-​specific research, when they presented the first case I saw NOTHING that indicated they needed to do any type of lengthy research. When they said they were workng on the second case they couldn’t show me anything that they had done. I feel that Mr. Holben dangled the 2^nd case in front of me to get me to commit more to finishing the first case and running up a much higher bill. Every time I contacted Mr. Holben or anyone else in his office they were very quick to remind me to pay more into my bill. Even when I agreed to pay a minimum amount per month they still pressured me to pay more with every contact with them. I still have no idea what specific «research» they did on the first case nor did I ever see any progress report on the second case. Mr. Holben was subsequently fired and I plan on filing a small claims action for the excessive charges. I think this guy is only interested in billable hours.

This guy is a total jerk (I would have used a stronger word but I’ll keep it PC).
I called to consult with him as I was helping my brother interview attorney candidates for a employment compensation matter.
Let me remind ol Don that we are the customer and people and cases like this are how he gets paid. Let me also remind him that when it comes to attorneys they are a dime a dozen and to the untrained public eye most offer nothing unique over the other — so engaging with a client is the only way for people to evaluate you and make hiring decisions. He was so arrogant and rude about asking questions on this matter that he seemed to give off the impression that he would be doing us a favor even talking about it.
This guy either needs a vacation or it’s time to give him the gold Rolex and retire. Somewhere along the line in life he became bitter, jaded and has lost his sense of customer service.

I should have reported this incompetent to the state bar association but I was going through so much at the time that I could not take on one more negative hassle. Later, I heard that he had been sued by dozens of other clients for malpractice and he had settled out of court to keep his license. He was worse than incompetent. He did just enough to cause more trouble for me in the ongoing case I was involved in. He kept my money but later gave back a portion of it. Even his last letter to me admitted what he had done in such an idiotic way that I could use it as fuel to get my money back. I should have gotten it all back and I should have sued him for malpractice. He was that bad. Later, I won my difficult case with a different attorney, but Donald Holben should be disbarred!!! This is an understatement. He is worse than stupid… Worse than diabolical… Worse than unprofessional. Run the other way! You would be better off representing yourself «In Pro Per» in court.