Lawyers at L.A. firm involved in $4-billion sex abuse settlement face state bar charges
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The State Bar of California has charged the partners of Downtown LA Law Group, a law firm at the center of a scandal that has consumed Los Angeles County’s $4-billion sex abuse settlement, with signing up clients in states where they had no license to practice.The bar charged Farid Yaghoubtil and Daniel Azizi, two founding partners of the personal injury firm, and Igor Fradkin, a litigation attorney, on Monday with signing up accident victims across the U.S., despite having no attorneys who could litigate the cases outside California.The firm took on clients in Texas, Florida, Maryland, Arizona, Iowa, Michigan, Tennessee and Virginia, according to the complaint.
Yaghoubtil faces 16 counts, including practicing law without a license, charging illegal fees, and continuing to represent a client that had fired the firm.Azizi faces 11 counts and Fradkin faces four.A spokesperson for Downtown LA Law Group did not immediately provide a comment in response to an inquiry from The Times.
The firm has previously denied all wrongdoing.“The public depends on attorneys to follow the law and to be transparent about where they are authorized to practice,” said George Cardona, State Bar chief trial counsel, in a statement.
“When attorneys extend their practice into jurisdictions where they are not licensed or allow staff to engage in unauthorized legal work in those jurisdictions, they put clients at risk.” DTLA is currently facing another investigation from the state bar in relation to thousands of sexual abuse lawsuits filed against the county, along with a probe from the district attorney’s office.Both are looking into allegations reported by The Times last year that recruiters paid clients to sign up with the firm and file sex abuse claims, some of which were allegedly fabricated.
The firm has said it “categorically does not engage in, nor has it ever condoned, the exchange o...