DTLA firm founder accused of unlicensed law practice

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The California State Bar has accused lawyer, who serves as the founding partner of a Los Angeles personal-injury firm under investigation for its alleged role in filing potentially billions of dollars worth of fake child sexual assault claims, with the unlicensed practice of law in multiple states.

The State Bar’s Office of Chief Trial Counsel filed the Notice of Disciplinary Charges (NDC) against attorney Salar Hendizadeh, a founding partner of the Downtown LA Law Group (DTLA), on March 9. The filing in State Bar Court accuses Hendizadeh of 11 counts related to the unauthorized practice of law in Texas, Florida, Maryland, Arizona, Iowa, Michigan, Tennessee and Virginia.

The attorney, who left DTLA in September of last year, is accused of allowing non-attorney DTLA employees to provide legal advice and legal documents in jurisdictions the law firm was not authorized to practice in. In addition, Hendizadeh and the law firm used the name and credentials of an attorney with Texas bar credentials, who left DTLA in 2022, on its website even after DTLA was sent a cease-and-desist letter, according to the State Bar.

“The disciplinary charges allege violations of rules regarding unauthorized practice of law that are intended to protect clients by ensuring that they receive legal representation from attorneys familiar with the legal rules and practices that will apply to their claims,” State Bar Chief Trial Counsel George Cardona said in a statement emailed to the Southern California Record.

If proven, the charges detailed in the NDC represent dishonest and illegal behavior that can compromise clients’ legal rights and their cases, according to Cardona.

Neither the DTLA firm nor Hendizadeh’s attorney responded to requests for comment.

The counts alleged in the filing include the use of false and deceptive advertising in Texas and other jurisdictions, moral turpitude due to misrepresentation of clients, the unauthorized practice of law in multiple states, illegal fee charges in Texas, and the misuse of an attorney’s name and Texas law license.

DTLA is also the subject of a probe launched by the Los Angeles County Counsel’s Office for alleged fraud tied to making false claims related to child sex abuse cases. DTLA was one of multiple firms that brought claims against Los Angeles County after the passage of Assembly Bill 218, which expanded the statute of limitation for child sexual abuse victims to bring claims against public entities.

The county Board of Supervisors agreed last year to pay out billions of dollars to plaintiffs who alleged they were victimized in county detention facilities. The county counsel probe is looking into potentially fraudulent actions by lawyers, recruiters and doctors.

Despite listing numerous Texas locations on DTLA’s websites, no physical DTLA  law offices ever existed in Texas, according to the State Bar.

“... Respondent-partners were never physically present in the state of Texas; instead all DTLA employees were based in California before one DTLA case manager … was assigned by respondent-partners to the Texas DTLA offices,” the NDC states.

The NDC describes numerous questionable legal practices in multiple states. In a Tennessee case, DTLA allegedly failed to act on a client’s behalf until after a one-year statute of limitations lapsed, causing the client’s claim related to an injury at a rental car business to be permanently barred.

And in Maryland, the law firm encouraged the use of a high-interest litigation loan in a client’s injury case and called on the client to travel to California for medical treatment, at a cost that exceeded $300,000, according to the State Bar.