Best Lawyers in Los Angeles, California
Select a practice area from the list below to find the best legal talent for your needs.
Practice Areas
Leslie Abbott is a partner in the Los Angeles Employment Law Department of Paul Hastings LLP, where she has practiced since 1991. She previously served as Global Employment Law Department Vice Chair-West Coast, and Chair of the Los Angeles Employment Law Department. Her practice includes the representation of employers in all aspects of employment law. Ms. Abbott is Chair of the firm’s PAGA Practice Group. She focuses her practice on defending complex class, collective and representativ...
Michael A. Akselrud is an associate at The Lanier Law Firm in Los Angeles , specializing in business litigation , personal injury and products liability . He joined the Lanier family in 2012 as a law clerk and member of the firm’s pharmaceutical litigation team. Michael was named by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in Southern California since 2016. In 2020 Michael was named to the LawDragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers, one of the most respected guides to the legal profession. ...
Keith Allen-Niesen is a partner in the firm’s Los Angeles office and co-chair of the infrastructure practice. He has a broad range of transactional experience and oversees major business litigation, business transactions, land use and development matters. Keith has extensive experience in the acquisition, development and sale of hotels, resorts, golf courses, restaurants, office buildings, residential subdivisions, shopping centers and industrial sites, including transactions involving ...
Hans’s practice focuses on high-stakes criminal and civil matters. He has extensive experience in the representation of clients who, because of their visibility, face significant reputational and professional harm on the mere accusation that they have committed a crime or engaged in wrongdoing. Hans’s work for these clients has traversed a range of industries, including sports, music and entertainment, business, and social media. He has successfully prevented authorities from fili...
James K. Andrade is a Senior Associate at Keystone Law Group, P.C. Prior to joining Keystone, James practiced at a boutique law firm in estate and trust litigation, estate and trust administration, estate planning, and general business advising. He has represented trustees, administrators, executors, beneficiaries, heirs, professional fiduciaries, and creditors in active litigation matters as well as administration of trusts and estates. In trust administration matters, James has advised trus...
Julian L. André focuses his practice on litigation with a particular emphasis on government prosecutions, enforcement actions and investigations, internal investigations, complex civil litigation and appellate matters. He is an experienced trial attorney and former federal prosecutor. Read full biography: https://www.mwe.com/people/julian-l-andre/
Andrew Apfelberg, a Partner at Greenberg Glusker LLP, is a corporate and finance attorney for middle-market companies throughout the United States. Andrew often acts as outside general counsel to his clients, providing advice on a business’ significant transactions whether it’s a merger or acquisition, private equity or other financing, joint venture or licensing deal. He has a considerable depth of experience in the branded consumer products and manufacturing & distribution i...
Paul S. Arrow’s practice focuses on all aspects of insolvency, including corporate reorganization, bankruptcy, workout and liquidation. Mr. Arrow regularly represents secured and unsecured creditors, creditors’ committees, franchisors, trustees, assignees for the benefit of creditors, debtors, and other parties in a variety of matters throughout the United States. Mr. Arrow has been a member of Buchalter’s insolvency practice since 1988.
Marla Aspinwall concentrates her practice in the tax, ERISA, labor and securities aspects of executive compensation for publicly held, private and tax-exempt organizations, including employment agreements; nonqualified deferred compensation; and equity, retirement, incentive and welfare benefit plans. Ms. Aspinwall has extensive knowledge of insurance-funded executive benefits and estate planning arrangements. She also specializes in the tax and business aspects of agricultural cooperative or...
Elena Baca is the Global Chair of the Paul Hastings Employment Law Department and leads a diverse group of more than 80 lawyers in 10 offices around the world. Ms. Baca is a first-chair litigator who regularly navigates high-stakes litigation, conducts sensitive investigations and advises C-suite executives and corporate boards on compliance and regulatory issues involving human capital. In her role as practice Chair, Paul Hastings’ Employment Department has anticipated and led the resp...
Farhad Bahar represents commercial finance companies, commercial banks, hedge funds, factors and other lenders in complex, secured and unsecured, single lender, club or syndicated, commercial loans, asset-based transactions, factoring, trade finance, acquisition finance, film finance, charter school finance, health care finance, public finance and letter of credit transactions. He also has extensive experience in workouts, debtor-in-possession financing, reorganization financing, inter-credit...
Jennifer S. Baldocchi is Co-Vice Chair of the Paul Hastings Employment Department and the Chair of the International Employee Mobility and Trade Secrets practice. Her practice focuses on employee mobility and intellectual property, including trade secrets, covenants not to compete, unfair competition, and fiduciary duties. She is ranked by Chambers USA, recognized by The Legal 500 US for trade secrets litigation and non-contentious matters, and recognized as both a Top Labor and Employment La...
Ian Ballon is an intellectual property and Internet litigator who represents clients in copyright, DMCA, trademark, trade secret, right of publicity, privacy, security, software, database and Internet disputes and in the defense of data privacy, behavioral advertising and other Internet-related class action suits. Mr. Ballon, who splits his time between the firm's Silicon Valley and LA offices, is the author of the four-volume legal treatise, E-Commerce and Internet Law: Treatise With Forms 2...
P. Ryan Banafshe established Banafshe Law Firm, PC in 2003 to provide client focused and results oriented legal services. After years of representing clients in several areas of law, he knew he found his passion the first time he represented an injured client. He has a sincere passion representing injured victims against insurance companies and he prides himself on obtaining the best possible outcome for his clients. Ryan is a skilled negotiator, an advocate of the people and fights for those...
Mr. Barton practices business law, representing both public and private clients in a variety of transactions and specializing in middle-market company M&A, reorganizations, and work-outs. Mr. Barton has extensive experience in both domestic and international transactions, including Australia, Canada, and Mexico. From 1992 to 1997, Mr. Barton was vice president, general counsel, and secretary of Sizzler and remained in charge of the company’s legal affairs throughout its chapter 11 r...
Sharon Baumgold is an expert in the arcane science of California appellate writs. She spent nearly four decades as a writs attorney on the California Court of Appeal’s Second District. There, she reviewed, analyzed, and advised appellate justices on more than 10,000 appellate writ petitions in all areas of state law, including arbitration, business and commercial litigation, employment, entertainment, government, insurance, real estate, and probate law. Frequent topics included jurisdic...
Michael L. Baum is the senior partner of Wisner Baum (formerly Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman). For 29 years he was Baum Hedlund’s managing partner until 2023 when he proudly turned over the reins to R. Brent Wisner. During his time at the helm, he led the firm through thousands of wrongful death and personal injury cases stemming from harmful major pharmaceutical drugs, consumer products, and commercial transportation.He began his career in 1985, primarily handling airline accident...
Gordon Bava is a senior partner of the firm after serving for a decade as its Chief Executive and Managing Partner. Gordon’s practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, special committee representation, private and underwritten securities offerings and general corporate representation of clients in a variety of industries. Gordon has conducted these services for public entertainment, utility and healthcare companies, local, regional and multinational financial institutions and holding...
Elizabeth is a partner in the private client and tax team at Withers Bergman LLP. She focuses her efforts on estate planning, planned giving and tax-exempt organizations. Elizabeth represents clients in matters related to family wealth transfers for large estates, sophisticated estate and gift tax saving techniques, charitable planned giving, and complex probate and trust administrations. She also regularly represents tax-exempt organizations in formation, organizational and operational issue...
Kenneth R. Benbassat concentrates his practice in general corporate, securities, transactional, commercial, and international business matters and has been involved in the structuring and documentation of numerous mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and licensing transactions.
Jonathan Benloulou is a corporate partner in Kirkland’s Dallas and Los Angeles offices. Jon regularly advises private equity firms and private and public companies on merger & acquisition transactions, including leveraged buyouts, joint ventures, minority investments, restructurings and other strategic transactions. In addition, Jon has extensive experience in asset manager M&A transactions and GP-led secondary transactions. He was recognized in the annual list of the “Top...
Companies facing high-risk cases rely on Todd to figure out how to develop an effective defense when no playbook exists. Todd’s recent focus has been on the liability and cybersecurity issues unique to autonomous vehicles. He also defends a wide variety of products liability cases, consumer class actions, mass torts, and investment disputes. Todd Benoff focuses his trial practice on high-exposure cases in the areas of products liability, toxic torts/mass torts, and business litigation, ...
Michael Berger is one of California’s preeminent appellate lawyers and is a partner in Manatt Real Estate and the appellate practice. One of the top land use and condemnation lawyers in the United States, his appellate cases have involved planning, zoning, eminent domain, various kinds of business litigation, landslides, contract, due process, equal protection, defective construction, nuisance, insurance and environmental law. Michael has argued four cases before the United States Supre...
