Brian S. Kabateck

Personal Injury, Labor & Employment, Insurance Bad Faith, Mass Torts & Disaster Litigation

Brian Kabateck has been behind some of California’s most high-profile litigation in recent years and he doesn’t just stick to one type of case.

“I like to say we’re the firm that does contingency cases that are off the beaten path,” Kabateck said. “We try to have our fingers in a bunch of different areas at any given time and not be pigeonholed as specialists in one area.”

Kabateck, who focuses on personal injury, labor and employment, mass torts and disaster lawsuits and class actions, said he likes a broad array of cases. His clients have ranged from struggling businesses forced to pay government fees while ordered to remain closed during the COVID-19 pandemic to women patients who said they were sexually assaulted by former USC gynecologist Dr. George Tyndall, helping them reach an $850 million settlement.

From a matter in 2019, Kabateck negotiated a $57 million settlement for hundreds of residents in Friendly Village Mobile Home Park in Long Beach. Residents said the owners failed to maintain the property, located on top of a landfill, and that it was constantly shifting and damaging their homes. The settlement was considered the largest for mobile home habitability lawsuits. Celestino Acosta v. Friendly Village Mobile, BC591412 (L.A. Sup. Ct., filed April 14, 2017).

Most recently, Kabateck reached a $4.5 million settlement with San Diego County in a class action meant to help struggling businesses forced to pay operational fees despite mandated state and county closures over the course of the pandemic. Cowboy Star Restaurant and Butcher Shop v. County of San Diego, 37-2021-00001129-CU-MC-CTL (San Diego Sup. Ct., filed Jan. 11, 2021).

Kabateck said he expects to see additional “post-COVID hangover type cases” as more people are discovering fraud and wrongdoing stemming from the pandemic.

He is representing ratepayer plaintiffs against the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in an overbilling scandal. In March 2021, he obtained sanctions and fines of nearly $2 million after he filed motions against the previous class counsel, who have been accused of a scheme to defraud the court.

For Kabateck, one of the greatest thrills is being in trial. And when a case is settled, he’s on to the next.

“I love strategy and I love going to trial,” he said. “You’re completely isolated from everything else. It changes all the time.”

– Kelly Puente