Bienert Katzman Littrell Williams LLP

San Clemente

White-collar defense, civil litigation, bankruptcy

Federal prosecutors Thomas H. Bienert Jr. and Steven J. Katzman met at work in the Central District U.S. attorney's office and, in 2000, joined forces to open the doors to what has grown into a 16-lawyer litigation shop. With headquarters in San Clemente and an office in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo area, Bienert Katzman Littrell Williams LLP punches above its weight in major cases.

"Our guiding principle is that good lawyers experienced in litigation can cross-practice in almost any matter," said Bienert, who worked at Irell & Manella LLP after leading the U.S. attorney's office in Orange County. "For example, Steve Katzman, my founding co-partner, was a bankruptcy trustee for several years as well as an assistant AUSA. And Mike Williams is an experienced civil litigator from Irell."

Bienert, whom the Daily Journal named a Top White Collar Lawyer in 2020, added that additional diversity of backgrounds comes with name partner John L. Littrell and Whitney Z. Bernstein, both former federal defenders.

BKLW's name partners have been joined by younger attorneys such as Bernstein, who was named to the Daily Journal's Top Forty Under 40 list for 2023. "What I like here is that smart people and good people staff this firm," she said. "The Venn diagram overlap of those qualities isn't large, but we have it. And we cover an interesting range of cases."

In June, Bernstein, representing the widow of adult entertainment publisher Larry Flynt, obtained a complete defense victory in a prolonged effort by Flynt's estranged brother Jimmy, to obtain half his estate. With a motion for summary judgment and sanctions against the brother and his counsel pending, Jimmy Flynt agreed to a walkaway settlement and a dismissal of all his claims with prejudice. Jimmy R. Flynt v. Elizabeth A. Flynt et al., 2:22-cv-00851 (C.D. Cal., filed Feb. 7, 2022).

"My client wasn't going to be shaken down," Bernstein said. "His litigation was motivated by emotion, and our summary judgment motion was teed up. But for him to do a complete walkaway was amazing. I was so hungry to get that trial win, but in a way, this was even better."

In October 2022, BKLW secured a misdemeanor and no-jail-time resolution for client Mohammed Abdul Qayyam in the middle of a multi-felony complex trial. Federal prosecutors in San Diego charged Qayyam, a nonresident tech professional in the U.S. on an employment visa, and three others with felony counts of conspiracy, wire fraud and electronic mail fraud in an alleged internet scam. Qayyam faced decades in prison and deportation on alleged losses of more than $70 million. U.S. v. Bychak et al., 3:18-cr-04683 (S.D. Cal., filed Oct. 31, 2018).

Bienert and Littrell were co-leads in a case with an uncommon outcome when federal prosecutors -- after 18 months of contested litigation -- abruptly moved to dismiss all criminal charges against a BKLW client, a prominent pain management physician. The BKLW investigation exposed false assumptions underlying the government's accusations of Anti-Kickback Statute violations alongside executives of a genetic testing company. U.S. v. Meshkin et al., 8:21-cr-00112 (S.D. Cal., filed June 9, 2021).

"The government dropped the entire case. It's extremely rare to get a complete victory before trial," Bienert said.

--John Roemer