Letters of Reference for Sona Klein

Letter from Harry Oppenheimer:

To Whom It May Concern:

Miss Sona Klein has worked with me for the past four years. She has helped me in a great variety of projects and endeavors. Without fail, Sona has approached every challenge with energy, talent and great enthusiasm. She brings an unmatched blend of focus, passion and great humor to everything she attempts.

When my attention wanders or I am facing a task that I find less than attractive, Sona invariably brings me back into focus with gentle, but firm, pressure. Over the past several years I have employed several other assistants. None of them has ever equaled Sona in accomplishments, quality of work or focus.

I heartily recommend Sona Klein to anyone who desires an excellent, intelligent, motivated person who will commit herself to whatever the situation demands. You will find her to be a great asset in virtually any situation.

Sincerely,
Harry L. Oppenheimer

Letter From Joseph Reisinger:

To Whom It May Concern:

As a former professional colleague, employer, and admittedly big fan of Ms. Sona Klein, I admit to feeling a bit strange writing a “to whom it may concern letter” to recommend this fine thinker and lady for any position which provides the challenge to hold her interest.

It is one thing to be “nice” when everything is going your way. It is quite something else to be strong and able to function at peak performance when all about you is under attack and falling apart. That’s what I think of when I think of Sona in her assisting me with my rather contentious litigation practice against rather major parties and resources far greater than we could possibly muster.

As a corporate trial lawyer, I initially retained the services of Ms. Klein first as an “organizer” in my office to help choreograph the parties, witnesses and evidence into a cohesive presentation of winning evidence in support of our clientele. As with anyone who is at the “top of their game”, I found myself wishing I could somehow be cloned to perform two to three times the services for clients. While that, of course, was not possible, I did find that Sona was instrumental in enabling me to be many times more successful than if I had been left on my own. Most significantly, in addition to bringing an unprecedented level of efficiency to my office procedures, she anticipated the needs of me and the rest of my staff in making it possible to streamline the work of my law firm both from the “front end” (long before I met the clients) until long after their specific case(s) was resolved through the court system. Most importantly, her contribution allowed me to move freely to what area of my practice was most in need rather than devoting my time to “putting out fires”. For that, I profited both financially and in terms of public identity in the realm of being able to be of greater service to more people on more matters.

This is not to say that Sona is the panacea of all panaceas. While she may be; for me, it was a balance between value given and value received. Sona has the capacity to be “firm” with some clients under strenuous circumstances. While this trait is not within my traditional character, it was nevertheless extremely valuable. She was able to get clients to pay who had accounts going back over a number of years. Additionally, she restored an element of dignity to my office when advising clients that while we delighted in representing their legal interests, we could only do so if (and on the condition that) they stringently followed our advice. On balance, Sona was a definite positive influence in this office.

In short, had I not retired from the profession of major commercial litigation, I would still be in the market to have Ms. Klein as not only an employee, but as one of my closest office confidantes.

Sincerely,
Joseph C. Reisinger

Letter from Howard Kornfeld:

To Whom It May Concern:

Sona managed our office for over a year between May 2004 and July 2005. She came in and completely reorganized our accounts receivable and our general office procedures in a very effective and creative way that highly increased our profitability. She hired additional staff and efficiently delegated responsibility. She kept the varied and numerous aspects of our practice well organized and running smoothly on a daily basis and she always brought a spirit of compassion and caring to our patients. I highly recommend her to any future employers looking for a dedicated and professional employee.

Sincerely,
Howard Kornfeld, M.D.

Letter from David Atlas:

To Whom It May Concern:

Sona worked for me as my personal assistant from approximately September 1999 through January 2002. She came by reference of a mutual acquaintance, a person I had previously done various deals with. I had one personal assistant prior to Sona, several years prior, for about six months, but that relationship was much more limited than the role Sona came to play.

During the latter 1990's Internet “boom” I found myself working a very large number of projects simultaneously. It quickly became apparent to me that other aspects of my life were beginning to show signs of neglect. Initially, Sona’s role was in keeping my non-professional life together. This involved everything from miscellaneous personal assistant chores – shopping, paying bills, running interference with cable installers, mechanics, planning my business trips, managing my other household staff, and just about anything else we could imagine delegating to her including completely redesigning my wardrobe to adjust to my latest professional persona. Sona has a very self-assured quality about her, and over the course of the first few months I felt comfortable giving her more and more latitude. Her work was uniformly seamless: things got done, as planned, and if things couldn’t be gotten done as planned, she got them done some other way.

I think what was most noteworthy, though, was her ability to go beyond executing tasks to actually helping me figure out what I needed before I did. She has a very unobtrusive way of making herself more and more valuable over time. Her flexibility in going beyond the scope of simply executing tasks to actually helping me understand how I should manage things made her invaluable. Her work for me ended when I moved to New York for six months. I felt very much un-tethered from the sense of order she’d brought to my life.

As someone who has managed upwards of two hundred people over my 20-year high tech career, I have developed a very good sense of what it is that makes people good managers. The key is always flexibility and the ability to consistently, and calmly, go about doing the things that need to get done, and pushing off the lesser important things. I thought of Sona as a sort of “personal manager” more than a “personal assistant,” given her ability to help me set priorities. This is what Sona does: she will come into a situation, figure out the areas she can help with, and ultimately get things done in a way that really is a lot more than “personal assisting.” And, I should add, in the most discreet way possible. I believe Sona has the ability to do just about anything she wants. I therefore recommend her without any hesitation to anyone looking for someone who genuinely needs help making his or her life run smoother.

To an individual or company looking to hire Sona, I think you would be extremely pleased to see how she works. There is something very gratifying about a person who comes into your life and very calmly just starts making things go a lot smoother.

Sincerely,
David Atlas

Letter from Javier Rice-Trujillo:

I recently started my own construction business. The challenges of starting a small business can be overwhelming. I needed help with the administration part of my company. A mutual friend referred me to Sona. She came in on short notice and designed the invoices I needed to run my business using Microsoft Excel. She also set up my company in Quickbooks. My lack of computer skills was not a challenge for Sona. In a very short time she was able to explain the program to me. Sona was very helpful, once even coming over on a Saturday to help me organize a proposal that I needed to present on Monday.

I would be very comfortable referring Sona to another person or business. She did everything I asked in a timely and professional manner. It was refreshing to work with someone who has so much enthusiasm for helping other people.

Sincerely,
Javier Rice-Trujillo