James W. Spertus

Practice Areas

Appeals, Civil Litigation, Consumer Class Actions, Student Discipline and Title IX, Trials, and White Collar Criminal Defense/Government Enforcement Actions

Career

James W. Spertus is an experienced trial attorney and a former federal prosecutor who has been litigating cases in federal and state courts for more than 26 years. He has tried dozens of cases to favorable jury verdicts and has successfully argued numerous cases in federal, state, trial, and appellate courts throughout the United States. Broad trial and appellate experiences help Mr. Spertus quickly identify the essential issues, facts, documents, and witnesses that drive outcomes, and he achieves remarkable results for clients efficiently and at a fraction of the cost charged by larger firms. Mr. Spertus is nimble, focused, aggressive and decisive, all qualities required to achieve extraordinary outcomes.

From 1996 to 2004, Mr. Spertus was a federal prosecutor in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, where he spent nearly eight years as a trial attorney prosecuting major frauds, major crimes, and computer crimes in a wide variety of areas. Mr. Spertus became a founding member of the Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section in 2000, and spent many years as an intellectual property prosecutor supervising complex investigations involving trade secret theft, computer intrusions, and intellectual property. Mr. Spertus has also lectured at numerous training sessions for federal agents and Assistant United States Attorneys, including advanced training sessions at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

From 1992 to 1996, Mr. Spertus was an associate at the Los Angeles law firm Irell & Manella, specializing in civil litigation. From 1991 to 1992, Mr. Spertus clerked on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for the Honorable Procter Hug, Jr.

Mr. Spertus has received multiple accolades for his accomplishments, including Chambers USA, the Daily Journal’s Top 100 Lawyers in California in 2023, Southern California Super Lawyers for each year since 2008, and U.S. News and World Reports' Best Lawyers in America since 2012. Mr. Spertus has also been recognized as a superior trial attorney by numerous other organizations such as The National Trial Lawyers Top 100, Lawyers of Distinction, AVVO, and Top 100 Lawyers.

Professional Memberships

James serves on the Board of Directors of the ABA White Collar Crime Subcommittee, Los Angeles Chapter, and the FBA Rules of Criminal Procedure and Evidence Subcommittee. He is admitted to the California state bar.

Personal

He earned his law degree from the University of Southern California Law Center in 1991, where he was Order of the Coif (Top 10%), Phi Kappa Phi (Top 5%), and Managing Editor of the Southern California Law Review. Mr. Spertus spent his first three undergraduate years at the University of California, Berkeley, and then transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1988.