Kelly Zinser | Kristin Smith | Kim Olenicoff (Retired)
Kelly Zinser
Founding Shareholder in Olenicoff & Zinser, PC
Kelly has 15 years of legal experience working at large law firms, and as vice president and general counsel to an investment advisor. Her inspiration for opening her own law practice and focusing on bankruptcy, estate planning and business law came when she started a family of her own. Becoming a mom gave her a fresh, perspective on how to effectively provide legal and financial support to both individuals with relatively simple needs as well as to those with dynamic family situations requiring more complicated legal analyses and strategies. Kelly’s holistic approach enables her to discover what’s important to clients, and then provide a custom legal solution to meet their needs.
Kelly is also a licensed real estate broker. Whether you’re facing bankruptcy or have complex estate planning needs, successfully handling real estate assets is likely to be one of your biggest challenges. She has the real world know-how to negotiate short sales with lenders or advise clients on their real estate work-out options. Kelly is well versed in helping clients understand and weigh all their options to arrive at the best possible solution.
In 2009, 2010 and again in 2011, Kelly is named on OC Metro’s list of Orange County’s Top Lawyers as one of the top 5 lawyers in the Bankruptcy category. She also maintains the highest rating on Avvo – a 10 out of 10. For 2011, Kelly serves as the Chair of the Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Section of the Orange County Bar Association.Kelly is a member of three state bars - California, Illinois and Missouri and takes her ongoing legal training seriously. She stays current on various strategies and trends in the law through continuing education, and is a member of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys and the Orange County Bankruptcy Forum. Kelly is active in the Orange County Bar Association as a member of the Commercial Law and Bankruptcy section and the Trusts & Estates section. Kelly graduated with honors from Tulane Law School and also with honors from her undergraduate studies at Washington University in St. Louis. At Tulane, she was the Articles Editor of the Tulane Law Review and she externed with the Honorable Morey L. Sear, Chief Judge of the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Kelly lives and works in Orange County, where she enjoys spending time with her husband and two young children raising organic vegetables in her backyard, weekly nature walks in a nearby nature preserve and enjoying Orange County’s many beautiful beaches.
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Kristin Smith
Associate
We are very happy that Kristin joined Olenicoff & Zinser in the fall of 2009. She enjoys her bankruptcy practice because she believes that everyone should have a chance at a fresh start. Kristin brings to the practice five (plus) years of experience in managerial accounting – which has proven to be of great benefit to our bankruptcy clients.
Currently, Kristin is an officer of the Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Section of the Orange County Bar Association. She is also a member of the Trusts & Estate Section, Tax Law Section and the Young Lawyers Division. Kristin volunteers at the Public Law Center and with the Orange County Bar Association’s bankruptcy clinics and is a member of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, which pursues civil cases to prevent animal cruelty and provides resources to local prosecutors in criminal cruelty cases.
Kristin is a member of the California Bar after graduating with distinction from McGeorge School of Law in May 2009. She completed her undergraduate studies at UCLA in 2002 while working full time. While in law school, Kristin studied with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Kennedy in Salzburg, Austria and also successfully petitioned the law school to have a course in Animal Law added to the curriculum. A true animal lover, she co-founded the McGeorge Animal Law Society (MALS). Kristin has been accepted into Chapman University’s LLM in Taxation program and expects to graduate in May 2012.
Kristin was born and raised in Orange County. After a three year stint in Sacramento for law school, she is happy to be back in Orange County where she enjoys spending time with her family (especially her nephew and niece) and friends.
Kim Leone Olenicoff
Founding Shareholder in Olenicoff & Zinser, PC (Retired)
A founding Shareholder of Olenicoff & Zinser, PC, Kim is now retired from the active practice of law. A double USC Trojan, Kim passed the California Bar in 1999 and immediately began work at the prestigious law firm Troop, Meisinger, Steuber & Pasich, where she and Kelly met. Kim understands that unexpected events can change a family’s situation because she lost her husband a few years ago. It is important to Kim that her firm takes care of people before they face a similarly stressful situation.
Currently, Kim is focusing on her inventions and building her business, Solutions That Stick. Her products, including Garment Guard, sell internationally and have been featured on the Today Show, Everyday with Rachel Ray, Oprah Magazine and myriad others.
Kim has volunteered extensively in her community and oversees charitable projects, which in the past have included providing SAT classes to low-income high school students (which the state of California then took over), free legal services to children and teens, and potable water to communities in Nicaragua. Currently, Kim serves on the Board of the Ocean Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to hands-on education for K-12 students in marine science, environmental education and maritime history programs.
As one of the rare California natives, Kim grew up and currently resides in Orange County with her pal, Schooner (an Australian Shepherd). When Kim is not in Orange County, you can find her on her sailboat somewhere on the other side of the world!