Jacob Koff

An encounter with Jacob Koff is like stepping into a John LeCarre novel.
You call to set up a meeting in advance to make the exchange. At the appointed time, with documents in hand, you enter one of SF’s historic landmark buildings at 220 Montgomery (
), and make your way towards the back area of the ground floor where the Mills Law Library is located. The door and archway are a throw back to the turn of the 20^th century. You enter, and immediately greeted by Jacob, a very neatly dressed, seriously polite, and traditional ivy league college professor-​like gentleman.
As I make my way to Jacob’s office, in the back of my mind I ask… what is a law library doing in a building like this?
The office surroundings appears to reveal someone who has been here a while, and takes pride in the work they do. Jacob is pleasant and professional, and quickly gets down to business, working with effortless efficiency of someone who is well experienced in the art of notarizing documents. You hand over the documents and id, then you raise your right hand and Jacob administers the oath. In exchange he gives you your documents with that ever important notary seal. You sign his record book, and then make the payment ($ 10 COD). The deal is done, and with a final exchange of pleasantries you realize that both the building and the person are what America used to be like — solid, inviting, pleasant, honorable.
For a brief moment I almost forgot I had to exit the building and enter the modern day SF world, and walk past those of smelly Marxist occupy protesters outside the Wells Fargo building on California St.
But I shall return the next time I need a notary. This was the simply the coolest Notary experience. I say, you might as well make the experience an interesting one. Certainly much better than a UPS or MAILBOX store.

I called Mr Koff for an appointment and was told to come in. He is very professional and knowledgable in this field, and had me on my wasy soon enough.
Fee? — Standard per document rate.

What should you expect from a notary? Well, I suppose the ability to notarize a document, for starters. But Jacob Koff made the experience as interesting as possible, so that’s why I’m giving him the five-​star salute.
He’s a meticulous sort of man, good for this line of work, and his office is in the Mills Law Library. While he worked on my documents, he chatted with me about the background of my name (his question) and the history and purpose of notarizing (my question!).
Raising my right hand, I swore that everything I had put down on the document was legitimate and factual, and with that I had my papers ready to go.
He charges the regular $ 10 per signed document, but his good natured seriousness is what remained with me.

My friend and I needed to get a letter notarized, so we made an appointment with Jacob Koff, who is also the manager in the Mills Law Library. Mr. Koff was a nice and very detailed oriented man. He even had his monogram stitched into the pocket of his dress shirt (we imagined that he probably has every article of clothing monogrammed). He made us feel confident that because it was so properly notarized that it couldn’t possibly be rejected. We made the appointment for the same day and the notary fee was $ 10.