Santa Monica Lawyers

I practice transactional entertainment and technology law and was a also a journalist at The Hollywood Reporter from 2010-20, where I covered entertainment labor, law and business. A former computer scientist, I was also active in local politics for over a decade. A preeminent expert on Hollywood unions and guilds, I'm the author of several books on the subject. I'm also an adjunct professor at USC and Southwestern law schools, and previously at UCLA Law School, and a non-resident research fellow at Rutgers University. I've worked as a talent lawyer; guild attorney; and as a litigator. I've been a member of the...

Christine M. Harney has extensive family law experience, including litigating the division of multi-million dollar estates, representing business owners or their spouses with complex forensic accounting and business valuation issues, and navigating a multitude of child-related issues involving mental health experts and attorneys for children. Christine formerly practiced family law as a partner in a Chicago, Illinois law firm before deciding to relocate with her family to California. Christine received numerous accolades during her practice in Illinois, including being selected as one of “40 under Forty” by the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin in 2016; as Illinois Leading Lawyer “Emerging Lawyer”...

P.J. Javaheri is a founding partner of ThruLaw; P.C., a boutique Personal Injury Law Firm (www.ThruLaw.com), operating as Mi Abogado ® as well as California Disability Rights Center that handles social security, disability and special education claims for claimants throughout California (www.CaliforniaDisabilityRights.org). Mr. Javaheri received his Juris Degree from University of California, Hastings in 2005 and joined Winston & Strawn, LLP, a world-class international law firm, where he sharpened his skills as a corporate and finance attorney. In 2009, he launched the Juris Law Group www.JurisLawGroup.com, a boutique transactional law firm founded on the principles of efficiency and streamlining overhead. With...

Joseph Tojarieh majored in History and Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles, graduating summa cum laude from the university’s prestigious Honor’s College with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He received his law degree from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles and was admitted to the practice of law in California shortly thereafter. While at Loyola, Mr. Tojarieh served as the Note and Comment Editor and Staff Writer on Loyola’s International and Comparative Law Review. He also served as president of the Real Estate Law Society and board member of Loyola’s Student Bar Association. As a participant in Loyola’s...

Nina Shayan Depatie is an experienced family law attorney, based on the westside of Los Angeles and representing clients throughout Southern California. A strong advocate with experience trying high-stakes cases, Nina also recognizes that family law matters can be emotionally trying and is dedicated to achieving the best outcomes for her clients in and out of court. Because every client and every fact pattern is unique, Nina favors a highly-personalized approach, tailored to her clients’ specific needs, and pursues all avenues to achieve the desired outcomes at the desired timelines. Nina has been recognized by Forbes as one of the ten...

Over 25 years of experience with all aspects of tax law, I act as a trusted advisor to clients on strategies targeted at optimizing tax efficiency of transactions and tax audits.

With more than 20 years of experience in law firms—including large, medium, and small firms, and running his own law firm for years—Mr. O’Rielly counsels and advises California law firms on critical issues at every stage of law firm life. He provides insight, analysis, and judgment to California law firms seeking to solve their most important challenges:

+ Law firm General Counsel. Serves as an outside General Counsel to California law firms, advising on attorney ethics, compliance, and practice management. Identifies and implements best practices for risk management, including identifying and resolving potential ethics compliance issues and practice management issues.

+Law firm...

Lance Claery has been successfully practicing family law for more than seven years. He has worked with a diverse client base ranging from multi-millionaires to low income, modest means clients. He started his career as an attorney working with one of Southern California's most experienced family law attorneys. Thereafter, Mr. Claery began working for one of Southern California's busiest and most prestigious law firms. He was made a partner of that firm very quickly and has since worked on hundreds of divorces and other family law matters. Mr. Claery has handled trials, depositions, arbitrations, mediations,...

I am an associate in Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP's Taxation, Trusts & Estates Department, where I focus my practice on estate planning. During my time in law school, I had the privilege of serving as a judicial extern for the Hon. Kim M. Wardlaw on the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and for the Hon. Rozella A. Oliver of the Central District of California. I was actively involved in academic publishing as a staff editor for the UCI Law Journal of International, Transnational, and Comparative Law. Additionally, I held the position of Vice President of Outlaw,...

I am an associate in the Labor & Employment Department at Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP. My role involves representing employers in a variety of labor and employment issues such as wage-and-hour disputes, wrongful termination, discrimination, retaliation, workplace privacy, unionization, and collective bargaining. Additionally, I assist with litigation at all stages, including discovery, motion practice, and trial preparation. I pride myself on being a responsive and detail-oriented advocate, dedicated to understanding my clients' objectives and providing timely, practical guidance that is tailored to their specific needs. Previously, I served as a legal intern at the Public Contracting Institute in Washington, DC....

I serve as Of Counsel in the Taxation, Trusts & Estates department at Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP, where I focus on devising creative and practical solutions to complex tax issues. In my practice, I regularly advise both individuals and business entities on a broad array of tax-related matters. These include M&A transactions, financing, internal corporate restructurings, Section 1031 exchanges, and deferred compensation. Additionally, I design and implement strategies for tax-efficient estate planning, wealth transfer, and business succession that cater to the needs of individuals, families, and executives across the wealth spectrum. Originally from Iowa, I now enjoy the California lifestyle,...

Julia Consoli-Tiensvold's practice includes general commercial litigation, land use litigation, and corporate defense and investigation matters.

Linda Elihu joined the firm in 2016 after graduating from UCLA School of Law with a Business Law and Policy Specialization. She also attended UCLA for her undergraduate studies where she graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in History. Prior to joining Jacoby & Meyers, Ms. Elihu gained practical experience performing legal work on issues covering police brutality, civil rights, products liability, and medical malpractice. She is committed to providing exceptional service to her clients.

I am a criminal defense attorney. I practice handle trial work, appeals and post conviction. I enjoy a challenge and fight for my clients.

Full service entertainment law practice handling corporate, financing, production, marketing and distribution matters worldwide across all media for studios, networks, cable companies and independent producers.

For over 13 years, I have helped clients in diverse technology areas achieve success in IP and business litigation, patents, trademarks and licensing. Having been at two leading large law firms (Greenberg Trauig LLP, AMLAW 10 and Sheppard Mullin LLP, AMLAW 100) for 10+ years, I have the experience and skills to provide our client's with the very best in quality and service. I have successfully settled numerous IP and business litigation cases, prosecuted hundreds of patent and trademark applications to issuance/registration and successfully negotiated complicated licensing and pre-litigation matters for small startups to Fortune 500 companies....

I earned my Juris Doctor degree from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, California, where I also participated in the Juvenile Justice Clinic through the Center for Juvenile Law and Policy. I am admitted to practice law in the state of California and before the United States District Court for the Central and Northern Districts of California. Additionally, I am a member of the John M. Langston Bar Association. This involvement helps me stay connected with my peers and remain current on developments in the legal field.

Jennifer Long's practice includes estate and gift tax planning, trust and probate estate administration, income tax and state and local (including property) tax work, as well as basic corporate work necessitated by the tax planning (LLC and corporate formation and maintenance, buy sell agreements, etc.).

Lara Leitner handles legal matters involving CEQA, NEPA, RLUIPA, environmental law, and litigation.

Prior to joining JMBM, Lara was an associate at a municipal law firm where she represented numerous cities and special districts in complex litigation matters, including real estate, eminent domain, breach of contract, environmental, water, and employment cases in both state and federal court.

Lara received her J.D. from the UCLA School of Law. She served as the Comments Editor for the UCLA Journal of Environmental Law & Policy. During law school, Lara developed her land use and environmental law experience as a legal research...

Tom Geher has expertise in bankruptcy, creditors' rights and insolvency and the representation of secured creditors, unsecured creditors, debtors and bankruptcy trustees in all aspects of Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 cases in a wide variety of businesses and industries. Tom has successfully represented numerous federal and state court receivers, as well as assignors and assignees in assignments for the benefit of creditors.

The Law Offices of Evan Braunstein provides fixed fee services for all of your divorce and family law needs. Our practice areas include divorce, premarital agreements, child custody and visitation, child support, spousal support, and modification of orders. Unlike most other family law attorneys, we do not bill by the hour but instead charge a fixed fee for our work on your case. This efficient billing approach offers you the predictability of knowing how much our services will cost and the assurance of knowing that everything necessary will be done. You will be able to talk to us and ask...

Matt Cadwell is an experienced and successful family and divorce law attorney based out of the Boyd Law office in Los Angeles, CA. Matt Cadwell is dedicated 100% to the successful legal representation of each and everyone of his clients that he represents. He sees it as a leap of faith by his clients when they choose him to represent them in a court of law, because of this Mr. Cadwell does not take the representation of his clients lightly. Matt Cadwell dedicates the necessary resources, attention, and time into each clients case to ensure that each...

Bruce Broillet's intelligent and committed approach to the law has earned him national recognition and respect among his peers in the legal community and has led to his induction into the Consumer Attorneys of Los Angeles “Hall of Fame.” Mr. Broillet is a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, an invitation-only group composed of the top 100 plaintiff trial lawyers in America. As a trial lawyer, he has obtained numerous seven and eight-figure results. He represents plaintiffs in such areas as business litigation, products liability, professional malpractice, personal injury, and wrongful death. Bruce also tried and won a $55 million jury...

Trevor Countryman is a partner in JMBM’s Real Estate Department. He advises clients in all aspects of real estate transactions including property acquisitions and dispositions, financing, leasing, development and construction. Trevor’s clients range from large funds to individual developers and opportunistic investors, engaged in deals involving office, retail, multi-family, single-family, mixed-use and hotel properties.

Rochelle H. Schultz applies a broad background in estate planning and business litigation to develop comprehensive estate and wealth transfer plans for high-net-worth individuals and families. With a background in litigation, Rochelle is particularly adept at identifying and addressing potential obstacles to clients' financial and personal goals. Clients appreciate Rochelle's genuine efforts to get to know them, their families, business dealings and concerns in order to better advise them during the estate planning process.

Rochelle began her career in dispute resolution and litigation, and has represented clients in commercial and entertainment contract disputes, intellectual property actions, employment actions, as well as...

Sharona Safaradi is an associate attorney at Jacoby and Meyers. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she graduated magna cum laude. After completing her undergraduate education, she earned her Juris Doctorate degree from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. While at UCLA Law, Ms. Safaradi focused her studies on civil litigation and trial advocacy. Upon completion of law school, Ms. Safaradi was selected by The American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) to serve as a fellow for its annual program. During this fellowship, she gained experience working with both defense and...

Jim Pocrass is a highly skilled and passionate advocate for people who suffer serious personal injuries or for families who lost a loved one to a wrongful death, because of the negligence of others. For 30 years Jim has held corporations, insurance companies, health care professionals, and individuals accountable for the damage they do people, obtaining multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements for his clients.

As a recreational cyclist, Jim Pocrass is well-known in the Southern California bicycle community. In additional to representing bicyclists in bike crashes, Jim is active in the bicycle community. He is vice president of the Los Angeles...

Aaron Kohanim has a corporate and real estate law practice, focusing on landlords and tenants, real estate and habitability claims. As a trial lawyer, his practice includes general corporate counseling, landlord tenant evictions, real estate purchase and sale transactions, and litigation. His goal is to provide great service to his clients and seek their goals in obtaining the results they want.

Light Law Group exclusively represents California workers for claims against employers, including: Wrongful Termination; Discrimination based on Disability, Pregnancy, Age, Sex, Race, Religion, Gender, Sexual Orientation, National Origin, Medical Condition, or Military and Veteran Status; Violations of Leave Laws for Pregnancy and/or Care of a Loved One (Family Medical Leave Act/California Family Rights Act/Pregnancy Disability Leave); Wage and Hour Violations including Overtime, Meal break, Rest break, and Minimum Wage Violations; Whistleblower Retaliation; Retaliation for Engaging in Protected Activity; Reporting Health & Safety Concern; Requesting Lawful Leave; Reporting Violations of Law; Misclassification of Employee as Independent Contractor; Misclassification of Non-Exempt...

Legal Expertise Brian Fu works closely with major production studios, talent and management agencies, and multinational corporations to devise creative immigration strategies for executives, on-screen talent in film and television, production teams, musicians, athletes, and artists to work on multi-million dollar projects in the United States. As a trusted advisor on global mobility matters for leading companies in such sectors as entertainment, fashion, design, cosmetics, and videogames, Brian counsels on complex labor and employment issues for foreign nationals. Brian has studied law at top schools in the United States, Australia, and Japan – on the prestigious Monbukagakusho Scholarship awarded by the...

Kara Koerner guides high-net-worth families, business owners and real estate developers through the complex process of managing and transferring business interests as part of the overall estate planning and wealth transfer process.

With an extensive and broad-based legal background, Kara understands the unique needs of clients whose complex planning requirements intersect several areas of law and involve generations of families. Clients appreciate her ability to innately understand emotional undercurrents that affect business decisions and planning at this level, and to navigate them diplomatically.

Prior to joining Weinstock Manion, Kara represented entrepreneurs in mergers and acquisitions, real estate developers in negotiating commercial loan...

I am a dedicated Estate and Tax Law Attorney at Weinstock Manion. My current practice focuses on Estate Planning, Wealth Transfer and Business Succession Planning. I provide comprehensive and creative estate, gift tax and business succession plans for individuals and families. I am committed to excellence, integrity, innovation, and personal attention to meet your legal needs and goals.

I received my B.A. in History from the University of California Los Angeles. In 2013, I earned my J.D. from UCLA School of Law. I am a member of the State Bar of California, Beverly Hills Bar Association, and American Bar Association.