Law Offices of Karen Y. Uchiyama

This law firm is unethical, wastes everybody’s time and costs everybody (including their client) more money to resolve simple issues.
If you are a tenant and you have an obfuscated, confusing notice in your hand, you should do a few things:
1. Take a deep breath. Seriously, their strategy is to stress you out. Don’t let them.
2. Go to the Eviction Defense Collaborative for free advice. Do it. It is a huge time-​sink but it is so worth it. They gave me the advice that I needed. Bring the notice and any other paperwork you have. If you have drafted a response, bring that too.
3. Get a good lawyer, there are plenty here on Unilocal.You can talk to as many as you want and they all will give you advice for free. Make sure you pick a lawyer that *specializes* in representing tenants. If they also do divorces, etc… think twice.
The strategy of this firm is to waste time and make more money in the process. They will settle or give up if you hold your ground.

terrible person represents slum lords kicking veterans and bed ridden elderly out of there apartments

The slumlord’s friend. She’s a bully and a legal thug, not someone who actually cares about the law. Know that if you hire her, you will automatically be placed on a list with a bunch of other criminals who harass people using their supposed private property claims (AKA greed).

works for unethical clients (Kihagi). How do you sleep at night Karen?

If you are a self-​concerned, self-​indulgent capitalist who is mainly interested in illegally evicting good neighbors and upstanding community members so you can gouge an overinflated real estate and rental market with your neglected, mediocre investment, then Karen Uchiyama is your lawyer.
Here is a recent article highlighting her professional accomplishments:
I hope SHE gets illegally evicted from whatever kind of nest she she scurries back to in the evenings!
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I don’t know this person directly but the fact that she uses her position to be an enforcer for scummy landlords tells you all you need to know about her character, in my opinion. I’ve dealt with many, many attorneys in my career and it never fails to shock me how devoid of scruples and ethics some of them are when they are busy lusting after money.
It’s too bad some people never learn there are things in life better than money, and self-​respect and ethics are two of them.

She’s a bad lawyer, no ethics, money hungry… the worst.

Shocked she can sleep at night, given her vindictive ways. I assure you this woman has an exclusive delight in evictions. Short skirts in front of judges, poorly written documents; playing the predator game. Landlords, stay away. There are attorneys who uphold the law… and a mild sense of decorum.

We hired Karen after going through 2 lawyers and talking to at least 5 other ones. The funny thing is all of those other lawyers said we would have to pay our tenants even though they did not pay rent or utilities for 9 months! Of course the tenants wanted to go through jury trial since they had a free lawyer, but the good news is, we won! FYI they drive a bmw and 2014 camry so I do not think they were actually low income. Karen knows what she is talking about and she is the best landlord lawyer in SF. She knows her law and knows how to apply them. She is a hard worker and is a very busy lawyer. Our family can’t thank her enough for what she has done for us! She is highly recommended!

Highly unethical, vindictive, and as stated by others, grossly incompetent. Ms. Uchiyama often targets immigrant, senior, and low income tenants with little access to legal representation, or the financial resources to effectively defend themselves in court. She has also been cited and fined by the California State Bar for professional misconduct (Public Reproval w/​duties, Case No: 04-​O-​12 334):

The documentation on the CA Bar site (there’s a downloadable PDF of the stipulation) is a good indicator of her tactics, general incompetence, and lack of ethics. It should also serve as a warning to any landlord who chooses to hire her.

Aggressively and unethically pursues cases against tenants and unprofessionally harasses and intimidates them. These are people’s lives. It is literally the worst way to make a living I can think of.

The Worst of The Worst Award recipient. Uchiyama has been sanctioned by the CA BAR (see their site) for ethics violations. Her double-​dealing dishonesty are well-​known to the SF legal community and beyond.
She creates acrimony and hostility when she could easily bring about compromise resulting in more fees for her and unreasonable expense and enmity for you. Hire her if you want to walk away with less $$ and more enemies.

Karen is great! She helped me and my partner with a messy situation and was kind to all involved. She does not promote, encourage or partake in harming tenants… she does things fairly and honestly. It does no good to anyone to have a mean attorney… she has loads of experience and knows SF rent control really well.

Grossly incompetent, forgets to put required language in a basic notice and results in a motion to quash. Waste of landlord’s time and money.

Entitled-​believing tenants greatly fear a competent landlord attorney. This explains the hateful negative reviews below. Ms. Uchiyama’s great. She knows local bay area (SF and other cities) rent control laws well. This isn’t a big law firm.
As a bay area renter for many, many years, I thought I was senstitive to tenant’s needs, when I bought my first property. I was wrong. SF in 2011 is not what it was even 15 years ago. Someof the tenants I inherited apparently watched the film «Pacific Heights», one too many times, and they heard too many stories of tenants getting whatever they wanted, including big bucks, to move. It appears they wanted to pressure me enough, that I would make them such an offer. But, Ms. Uchiyama doesn’t think landlords should allow tenants to intimidate them, when they are: 1. following the law, 2. treating tenants in reasonable ways and taking care of their properties … but, she has pretty much seen it all.
You can get info from friends, and the city’s website, but I think having an attorney to help one feel confident in dealing with the tenants’ problems, and sometimes having letters come from an attorney and not just a landlord, together, can made a huge difference. It did for me.
I joked, that she was part therapist, part coach, part attorney, since she encourages landlords to be proactive/​independent, but also help expecations and requirements between the two parties, become clearly defined, or take appropriate actions if the problems escalate. Her fees were reasonable, and she saved me a lot, in the end — since I fortunately, didn’t make moves which could have backfired. I couldn’t imagine going to someone else if I needed help again in this area.