Reaction conditions depend on presence of base/acid sensitive groups.
Without them we used a following procedure: 1. treat an ester with ca. 5% ethanolic-aqueous NaOH (4 equivalents) and heat the mixture at reflux with a TLC control. It’s not necessary to dissolve the ester in the beginning, dissolving occurs during the reaction, sometimes addition of THF is helpful; 2. Dissolve the obtained salt in water (if it separates), extract 3 times with hexanes or ethyl ether to get rid of small amount of impurities, acidify with dilute HCl (with NH4Cl for very acid sensitive compounds) and extract with dichloromethane to get an acid sufficiently pure for most purposes.