Michael Avenatti trades Newport Beach for Echo Park

Evicted from his posh offices in Newport Beach, Michael Avenatti is sharing space next to a diner in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The move is quite a change from the gilded streets of Newport Beach. Here, on the eastern end of Sunset Boulevard, one is more likely to hipsters on scooters than multimillionaires in Ferraris.

But the lawyer who built a national profile as President Donald Trump's chief tormentor might soon be back in Newport Beach.

Avenatti said Thursday he's had a presence at the Echo Park office for years, but that construction is underway on a new headquarters in Orange County. He estimated work would be done in 30 days.

Suites at Avenatti's new office in the Class B Rolf K. McPherson Building range between 3,000 and 5,000 square feet, according to property records. Avenatti previously had 8,000 square feet of Class A space.

Online records show the suite listed as Avenatti's new address is occupied by The X-Law Group PC, a boutique firm handling bankruptcy, criminal defense, personal injury and business law, according to its website. Immediately in front of the office is a security check-in.

The firm's founding partner is Filippo Marchino, a civil litigator who's partnered with Avenatti on cases.

Avenatti and Marchino were both counsel in a class action fraud claim brought against medical device manufacturer Hayward Health, winning a $454 million verdict in April 2017 that was subsequently reduced. They also partnered on a wrongful death lawsuit against actor Jim Carrey, representing the mother and estranged husband of Cathriona White, Carrey's ex-girlfriend who died of an overdose in 2015.

Carrey filed a countersuit, claiming Marchino "demanded millions on [White's] behalf in order to keep quiet about" an allegedly forged STD test that indicated Carrey gave White a sexually transmitted disease.

Avenatti, speaking on behalf of the family, issued a statement denying Carrey's "outrageous" claims after the lawsuit's filing. Both the underlying lawsuit and Carrey's countersuit were voluntarily dismissed though details on the resolution were never made public. Carrey v. Burton, BC634315 (L.A. Super., filed June 9, 2016).

The two have also been personally involved in a long-running legal battle with the Los Angeles-based firm Stoll, Nussbaum, & Pokalov LLP over a nearly $16 million award stemming from a 2011 personal injury case.

The fee dispute has now bled into Avenatti's ongoing dispute with Frank, who is still looking to collect his share of the award. Jason Frank Law PLC v. Michael J. Avenatti, BC706555 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed May 16, 2018).Though he's now right at the media industry's doorstep, it comes at a time when several of his most prominent lawsuits are facing harsh odds for survival.

U.S. District Judge James Otero indicated Tuesday he would dismiss Daniels' breach of contract lawsuit filed against President Donald J. Trump.

Though Avenatti expressed frustration with the judge's inclination during the hearing, he declared the result a victory in a media conference held immediately after, claiming Trump's lawyers admitted his client "was right all along."

The same day, Avenatti filed a brief in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, challenging the district court's dismissal of Daniels' defamation case against Trump.