Stephen G. Larson

Larson’s most recent trial was a weeklong general court martial conducted at Edwards Air Force Base. He and a partner won acquittal for an Air Force officer accused of conduct unbecoming and other violations. It was his first case in a military court.

Larson said the case highlights the breadth of his practice and his firm’s ability to succeed in any courtroom. His work was just as wide ranging earlier in his career as the head of the U.S. attorney office’s organized crime section and then as a U.S. district court judge.

“I’ve always emphasized that as trial lawyers, you become better lawyers by having a diverse practice, by being able to successfully litigate both criminal and civil cases, to be able to handle appeals, to be able to handle basically anything that involves a courtroom,” he said.

Among his wide variety of cases, he has represented a London-based executive for an international mining company during 10 years of investigations into allegations of fraud, corruption and bribery.

Riverside County retained his firm as special counsel to represent it in a grand jury investigation, which was resolved with no charges filed.

He has represented actor Kevin Spacey in a civil matter. He is set to defend USC’s former head water polo coach on criminal charges in the Varsity Blues college admission case in March. U.S. v. Ernst, 1:19-cr-10081 (D. Mass., filed March 5, 2019).

Larson’s next major courtroom outing will be a preliminary hearing in January defending a tax agent charged alongside former L.A. County tax assessor John Noguez in a 75-count public corruption conspiracy case and companion tax evasion matter. This will be the second preliminary hearing in the case after Larson and partner Koren Bell won an appeal dismissing all charges in July 2020. People v. Salari, BA403666 & BA417226 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed July 20, 2018).

He said that hearing could last several months, but he and Bell are also set to begin trial on Valentine’s Day in Chicago defending the president of an information and advertising video service for medical offices who is accused of being part of a $1 billion securities fraud scheme. In January, they defeated a motion to stay the civil case, allowing the defense in the criminal case access to discovery. United States v. Desai, 1:19-cr-00864 (N.D. Ill., filed Nov. 14, 2019).

“I enjoy the diversity of the practice,” he said. “In a world of increasing specialization, I enjoy being a litigator, a trial lawyer who handles anything that involves the courtroom.”

- Don DeBenedictis