Wednesday, March 11, 2026

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State Bar Files Disciplinary Charges Against Co-Founder of Downtown LA Law Group

By a MetNews Staff Writer

SALAR HENDIZADEH

attorney

The State Bar has filed a notice of disciplinary charges against Salar Hendizadeh, a founding partner of the Downtown LA Law Group LLP, based on allegations that he helped the firm engage in the unauthorized practice of personal injury law across eight states by retaining clients without regard to where they lived or where they were harmed and without affiliating with local counsel.

A notice of disciplinary charges filed Thursday and announced Monday afternoon, sets forth that Hendizadeh, who left the firm in September, helped oversee the management of marketing, client intake, and pre-litigation settlements during his tenure with the law office. The office has faced scrutiny in recent months after some clients alleged that they were paid to participate in a sex abuse litigation against Los Angeles County that last year led to an agreement to settle claims for $4 billion.

Attorneys with the Office of Chief Trial Counsel (“OCTC”) alleged that Hendizadeh and others marketed the firm, and certain affiliated offices, as authorized to handle personal injury cases in Texas, Florida, Maryland, Arizona, Iowa, Michigan, Virginia, and Tennessee without employing or associating with lawyers who were licensed to practice in those jurisdictions.

Texas Practice

They said that, between 2017 and 2025, he and the other partners of the firm, Farid Yaghoubtil and Daniel Azizi, “practiced law using” the Downtown LA Law Group “firm name, and other business names, including Union Injury Law Firm…, Normandie Law Firm…, and Lone Star Injury Law Firm” not only in California but in other states “in which none of the [partners] were licensed or otherwise authorized to practice law.”

OCTC alleged that the three then-partners registered a limited liability company in Texas and used it to purchase two office buildings that were later listed on the affiliated firms’ websites as addresses, even though “no physical Texas law office actually ever existed, and [the partners] were never physically present” in the state.

The partners then purportedly “advertised both [Downtown LA Law Group] and Lone Star” as “Texas’s #1 Injury Law Firm” and marketed “their clients’ satisfaction with…legal services in California and Texas using duplicate identical client testimonials purporting to be from different clients depending on the jurisdiction to which the website advertisement was addressed.”

A testimonial; by one alleged client, “Jenny N.” from Texas, was identical to that of “Susan H.” from San Diego.

Licensed Lawyer

Former staff attorney Darren McBratney was licensed in both states and worked for the firm between April 2018 and January 2022, but he purportedly claims that he had “limited to no access” to Texas client files until a case was assigned to him by the litigation coordinator.

Fee agreements were entered into with Texas clients in 2017, before McBratney was hired, and after he left the firm. Three California attorneys, Igor Fradkin, John Rofael, Patrick Khalil, were assigned to Texas client matters and performed legal services without associating with local counsel; State Bar records show clean disciplinary records for Rofael, Khalil, and Fradkin, who is the only one of the three to still work for the firm.

After he left the firm, McBratney repeatedly asked for his name to be taken off the Downtown LA Law Group website and for the firm to cease and desist using his license to practice in Texas. The partners allegedly failed to comply until last October, when the State Bar opened an investigation into the firm.

Similar Misconduct

In Thursday’s notice, OCTC also asserts that similar alleged misconduct occurred in other jurisdictions, saying:

“Beginning on or about August 2, 2019, and continuing through in or about September 2025, [the partners] caused non-attorney staff…to…use [the firm’s] letterhead to enter into fee agreements…for the…provision of legal services…[and] to engage in pre-litigation and settlement communications…., including sending client demand letters to insurers and opposing counsel,…[and] charg[ed] and collect[ed]…fees…without screening clients for where the client resided or where the…injury occurred and prior to the retention of any identified local counsel, with the result that [the partners], operating under the DTLA firm name, represented clients in multiple legal matters in jurisdictions in which none of the respondent-partners was licensed or otherwise authorized to practice law.”

One highlighted case involved a settlement of an Arizona car accident case for $650,000. The attorneys who worked on the case were not licensed to practice in that state; the firm is alleged to have collected more than $100,000 in fees relating to the resolution.

Sex Abuse Settlement

Last April, the county agreed to the record-breaking $4 billion settlement to resolve more than 6,800 claims of sexual abuse at county facilities dating back to the 1950s. The lawsuit came on the heels of the 2019 adoption of Assembly Bill 218, which increased the time limit for commencing a legal action for childhood sexual assault to the later of 22 years from the date that the plaintiff reaches the age of majority or five years after discovery.

Some of the victims have asserted that recruiters for the Downtown LA Law Group paid them to participate or to fabricate claims in the putative class action against the cash-strapped county and were encouraged to pursue expensive medical treatments based on promises of greater damages awards. A former paralegal employee, Sereen Banna, filed a lawsuit in December, claiming that the law office failed to address her complaints about deceptive business practices.

The State Bar, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, and the Office of Los Angeles County Counsel have announced investigations into the firm following the allegations.

Last week’s notice of disciplinary charges is directed only to Hendizadeh, even though the other partners are mentioned. According to the filing, Yaghoubtil shared responsibility for marketing/client intake and had repeatedly asked for a referral fee from a woman who was injured in a Michigan drugstore after she dropped the firm for allegedly taking too long to file.

In 2017, a State Bar judge imposed a public reproval after Azizi stipulated to failing to appropriately supervise certain of the firm’s staff and to ensure the timely prosecution of a client’s claims.

Hendizadeh, who graduated from Loyola Law School, still lists the Downtown LA Law Group as his employer on the State Bar website.

As of press time, neither Hendizadeh nor the Downtown LA Law Group responded to requests for comment.