Helen Batsheva Bloch

Recently, I retained Helen to help me with an issue I was having with my condo association. After my first consult in her office I knew I was in good hands. Helen had extensive knowledge of Chicago laws and ordinances pertaining to the problem I was facing with my condo board. Helen and I went... through the condo documents needed to provide swift and positive out come. Helen suggested sending a certified letter to the board giving then a date she needed to hear back from them or else face being sued. The board responded in timely manor and this issue I was dealing with was over. The estimate of coasts and or billable hours were were very close to the actual amount I paid. If you need a lawyer who can and WILL get the job done in a timely manor, by all means consult Helen Bloch

I was extremely disappointed in my representation by Ms. Bloch. I consulted with multiple attorneys for the purpose of reviewing a separation agreement after I was let go by my employer. Many attorneys noted I had a strong wrongful termination case and advised an aggressive approach. I chose Ms. Bloc...h because she seemed calm, pragmatic, and I thought a good fit. However, once I paid a retainer this quickly changed. First she used up the retainer in our very first meeting by spending two hours having me frequently repeat my story and recite a timeline of events which I prepared ahead of time per her direction and printed out for her records. Other attorneys I ultimately chose not to hire were able to obtain this information through a free consultation, which was my first red flag. I was also clear with Ms. Bloch what my budget was and that my ultimate goal was to have the severance my employer offered, a positive reference, and mutually beneficial separation agreement as I was not sure about the language in the agreement my employer initially offered. At the end of our first meeting, once the retainer was eaten up, Ms. Bloch refused to continue to represent me unless I consented to a demand letter to my employer. I was up front about my intentions but she said she could end our representation and I would need to hire another attorney for my goals. I did not have more money for another attorney, and fell for the sunk cost logical fallacy and continued with Ms. Bloch. Ms. Bloch had me draft the demand letter myself, which I did after thoroughly researching templates and tips online. Ms. Bloch later billed several hours for drafting this letter, even though she made little changes herself to the letter, which generally fell under two categories. First, she added strong and at times sensational and combative language, which she defended as necessary for negotiation strategy. Second, she changed and deleted facts via redline, which ultimately took time and money to change back, as it was very important to me that the letter be accurate. I felt uncomfortable with her pushing me to use a "liberal" or "alternative" version of the truth and it was frustrating that I had to continually repeat the facts and timeline from our first meeting, the original timeline I gave her, and during the demand letter review. Ms. Bloch also did not send the demand letter by my former employer's deadline, and was difficult to reach at this time. It was frustrating she did not tell me this ahead of time. When I did reach her she gave me a date after the deadline that she would send it out, but did not do so until I reminded her at the end of the day. Once the demand letter was sent, I confirmed with Ms. Bloch through email that she would not be billing additional time while we waited for a response to the demand letter. Up until that point Ms. Bloch had been so difficult to reach, but now she reached out to me multiple times through email, phone calls and messages, all of which of course were billed, but also hostile. In these messages she threatened to end her representation of me, contact my former employer to notify them, and send their attorneys my contact information to say I was representing myself. She gave me a deadline of a few hours before she would take these steps. I had been unreachable because I had already started searching for a new job and had been with a potential employer. I was very surprised by her actions and when I received her messages immediately contacted her. She said she needed freedom to do her job, including approval to bill on this case. I asked what she needed approval to work on and she never gave an adequate answer, eventually admitting that there wasn't anything for her to bill until the other side contacted her. I felt very bullied and as friends noted, this attorney seemed interested in getting as much money from me as possible. I've run out of space but am happy to share more.