Helping you navigate today's complex legal environment^SM

Hi, I'm Una Lee Jost, a California licensed attorney serving the legal needs of nonprofit organizations and small businesses.

I believe it's in the best interests of all nonprofit organizations and business to have regular access to strategic legal advice to protect you and your organization, and avoid expensive mistakes and litigation. That's why big businesses often employ a full-time attorney on staff to serve as their General Counsel (or even an entire team of attorneys) to provide ongoing legal advice. They know that even one negative result from a lawsuit can wipe out their organization and all their time and money invested.

Through my 17+ years of legal experience, I've gained broad perspective in the many ways that law intersects with life. After receiving my J.D. from Loyola Law School in 2001, I worked as in-house legal counsel for a nonprofit university as well as a civil litigator at Los Angeles law firms defending public entities, big businesses, and others. In 2010, I started my own law practice in order to put my decade-plus of legal experience into use in serving California's nonprofits and small businesses.

Running a nonprofit organization or small business is hard enough without having to also become a legal expert! Whether it be starting up a nonprofit or small business, or dealing with any one of a myriad of daily legal issues facing the nonprofit executive or business/social entrepreneur, my mission is to serve as your legal counselor and confidante in helping you navigate today's complex legal environment.

I'm honored to be entrusted with providing legal services to the talented and giving visionaries I work with, and make it a priority to provide personal attention, timely and dependable legal advice, and creative, results-oriented solutions to each of my clients. By utilizing me as your Outside General Counsel to take care of the legal end of things, you'll be freed up to focus on what matters to you most - doing the work you love!

What I love most about my job: Coming alongside visionaries and helping them structure the legal framework to enable them to focus on pursuing their passions.

Please feel free to contact me today to schedule an initial consultation. I'm happy to connect with you to learn about your legal needs, determine how I may be of service to you, and provide you with a customized proposal.

Clients

My practice is focused on serving the legal needs of California's nonprofit organizations and small businesses.

Representative clients include:

• nonprofit organizations (charities, schools, churches, religious organizations, trade association, etc.)
• LLCs, corporations, and other small business entities
• self-employed professionals
• service businesses and consulting practices
• home-based businesses

To increase reasonable access to justice, I also offer my law services to individuals such as employees and others on a case-by-case basis.

Services

Ways I help you practice "preventive law" include:

• Starting out:
  • Startup services: Receive legal representation in forming a new nonprofit organization or small business and building a solid legal foundation. Includes assistance in obtaining 501(c) exemption if requested.
• Ongoing legal counsel:
  • Legal consults: Receive legal advice in the myriad of legal issues facing the nonprofit executive or business/social entrepreneur to help you navigate today's complex legal environment. Topics include corporate governance, corporate maintenance, tax-exempt compliance, employment law, risk management, dispute resolution, and others.
  • Contract reviews: Receive attorney comments on proposed contracts to help you negotiate and ensure a level playing field, be legally compliant, and manage legal risks. Includes negotiation of contracts on your behalf if requested.
  • Document reviews: Receive attorney comments on letters and other legal documents to assist you in understanding your rights and obligations, and legal options.
  • Document drafting: Receive expert help in drafting your own custom form agreements and policies to streamline your process, be legally compliant, and manage legal risks. Documents include nonprofit operating manuals, employment manuals, document retention policy, whistleblower policy, conflicts of interest policy, liability releases, and others.
  • Corporate maintenance: Receive legal assistance in preparing annual corporate minutes of your key transactions and filing of the Officers' Statement with the Secretary of State to be legally compliant and minimize personal liability.
  • Dispute resolution: Receive legal assistance and representation in resolving disputes with governmental agencies or other third parties.
  • Compliance reviews: Receive periodic compliance reviews of your operations to identify and minimize legal risks. Includes assistance in implementing recommendations if requested.
• Closing down:
  • Corporate dissolutions: Receive legal representation in dissolving your corporation to avoid being subject to further corporate and tax obligations.

Like a primary care doctor, my role is to serve the majority of business legal needs that commonly arise. However, certain situations requre a specialist -- particularly in large, complex, or specialized legal matters. In those situations, my services include assisting you in finding and hiring the appropriate legal specialist and interfacing with them on your behalf.

Attorney Profile Una Lee Jost

Una Lee Jost is a California licensed attorney, serving the legal needs of nonprofit organizations and small businesses. Through her 17+ years of legal experience, Una has gained broad perspective in the many ways that law intersects with life.

Education. Una graduated from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles in 2001, where she was Articles Editor of the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review. In 2010, she obtained a Certificate from the Northwestern University Summer Institute in Negotiation. She is an honors graduate of UC Riverside with a Biology major and Ethnic Studies minor.

Experience. While in law school, Una externed at the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice, California Attorney General's Office, and Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. After graduating from law school, she worked as a civil litigator at Los Angeles law firms for six years where she defended numerous public entities, businesses, non-profits, and others in a variety of civil actions filed in both federal and state courts. She then served as in-house legal counsel for three years providing overall legal guidance to a nonprofit university. In 2010, Una started her own law practice in order to put her decade-plus of legal experience into use in serving California's nonprofits and small businesses.

Affiliations. Una is a member of the State Bar of California and an associate member of the California Association of Nonprofits. Currently, she serves as an Advisory Board Member of the National Lawyers Guild of Los Angeles, and Board member of the West Coast Mennonite Central Committee, a relief, service and peace agency. She is also actively engaged in her community, working alongside committed grassroots and community leaders to help create a society that puts human rights over property interests. In the past, she has also served as Governance Committee Chair and Board Member of the Christian Legal Aid of Los Angeles, as well as Secretary and Board Member of the Taiwanese American Lawyers Association.

Personal. Una is also a lover of music. For a while, she was the perennial wedding singer, and has served many years as music team leader for local churches. While in college, she formed an artists troupe for college students to share their musical talents at hospitals, homeless shelters, and convalescent homes. As a law student, she worked as a piano instructor for a West LA music school. She was also a Soprano member of the Legal Voices of the LA Lawyers Philharmonic which debuted at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

When not working, Una can be found running after her first-grade resident comedian, spending time with her programmer husband Geoffrey Jost, and wishing she had more time to experiment with her synthesizer/keyboard.

Pricing

Because each client's situation is unique, I need to learn about your legal needs to determine how I may be able to serve you. (In a mechanic's world, this means I need to "lift the hood" a bit to see what's going on.) Depending on your situation, I offer my services on an hourly or flat-fee basis. Many factors go into determining appropriate pricing for a service, including the type of client, type of matter, complexity of the matter, and type of service requested. Knowing your need to have predictable costs, I offer legal services on a flat-fee basis whenever possible.

My philosophy is to treat clients the way I would want to be treated; this carries over into my pricing. I work with you to arrive at a pricing that makes sense to both of us. I tell you up-front in a written retainer agreement what services I will provide and how I will bill for those services. You are welcome to let me know if you have any questions about any invoice. I do my best to always bill fairly and reasonably to earn your continued relationship.

Contact

Thank you for your interest. I am not accepting new clients at this time.

I look forward to connecting with you to see how I can serve you, so please don't hesitate to contact me for any questions regarding this website or my legal services.