Tom

Thomas S. Wrobel is an experienced attorney and expert in nonprofit law. He has been practicing law in the state of California since 1997. Mr. Wrobel has assisted hundreds of organizations, across the country and internationallyl, in successfully attaining nonprofit tax exempt status with their state and the IRS.  He is committed to making life easier for people who are doing good work in the world.

Mr. Wrobel graduated from Miami University with a Bachelor of Philosophy and received his Juris Doctorate from the Ohio State University College of Law. After law school, Mr. Wrobel passed the Oregon and California Bar and gained experience in litigation, real estate, and business transaction law while working for some of San Francisco’s premier law firms such as: McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen and Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May. After initially working in civil litigation his focus turned to the nonprofit sector and assisting nonprofits with formation, obtaining tax-exempt status, and ongoing compliance issues.

Krista

Krista Herbe has worked for TS Wrobel & Associates since 2007. She has over 5 years of non-profit experience specializing in grassroots and fundraising development and has worked in client services for over 10 years. Krista has worked for both national and local California nonprofits including ACORN, CUAV, and SFWAR. As a Canvas Director for Working America, she trained staff while working on a national campaign to keep overtime pay. She also worked in Ohio with a local faith-based organization called Working In Neighborhoods, focusing on environmental justice issues to keep local landfills closed. She also has experience in dealing with issues that include gender equality, anti-violence, protecting animals, and human rights. Krista has a B.A. in Public Relations from Miami University.

Courtney

Mary Courtney Ham has a Masters in Social Work from Tulane University.  There she worked with the Education Resource and Counseling Center where she counseled students and assessed the mental health needs of the student population. She completed a qualitative study of Transpeople who had been incarcerated in the last five years in order to advocate for housing and prisoner's rights. She has worked as a Core Organizer for the Childcare Collective of the Bay Area, which provides free childcare services for women of color who are organizing in their communities. Courtney worked as a Lead Interviewer with Thompson and Barney, LLC, a legal firm in Mingo County, West Virginia. She interviewed over two hundred children and adults whose water source had been contaminated by underground coal slurry. She also co-organize the kids/youth space at the Critical Resistance 10 year anniversary conference which brought together prison abolition advocates internationally to focus on prison abolition in the United States. She has been working with our frim since 2007, as a Legal Assistant and most recently as a Grants Specialist.  She currently lives in New Orleans, LA.

Stella

Stella Lawson has been with our firm since 2005. Previous to joining our firm, Stella served as a Compton Mentor Fellow working for food justice through programs bringing healthy foods to low-income communities. Stella  has developed successful grant proposals focusing on youth entrepreneurship, sustainable agriculture and health. She has also worked as a personal chef for people living with AIDS, facilitated cooking classes for young people and has written two cookbooks. Through working in social and environmental grassroots programs throughout high school and beyond she has gained invaluable experience working with nonprofit organizations in areas such as planning, strategizing, budgeting, grant writing and community building. She received her B.S./B.A. at Berea College, in Sustainable Agriculture and Women's Studies.