Greenberg Glusker LLP

Focus and practice areas

The firm runs from a single office in Los Angeles and states on its website that it has served businesses, organizations, and individuals for more than 65 years. That length of operation gives the firm a wide practice list. The website mentions over 65 years of work but does not print a founding year.

The site groups the work into bankruptcy, reorganization and capital recovery, corporate law, employment, entertainment, environment, intellectual property, litigation, private client services, real estate, and tax. It also lists cybersecurity and privacy as its own area. Within those groups the firm names specific tasks. Corporate lawyers handle mergers and acquisitions and corporate financing. The intellectual property team works on trademark and copyright protection.

Environmental lawyers cover compliance and litigation. The private client group handles trusts and estates planning and administration. Real estate work runs to acquisitions, leasing, and land use. In my opinion this range reads as a general business firm with several deep benches.

How the team is built

Bob Baradaran leads the firm as Managing Partner. His practice covers real estate, business and corporate matters, and entertainment and sports, and he earned his law degree from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law in 1996. The attorney roster the site publishes mixes partners and associates, and the listed credentials point to well-known law schools.

Several partners carry the corporate and transactional work. Benjamin Alexander focuses on business and corporate matters, including mergers and acquisitions and securities and corporate finance, and he studied at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Bruce D. Andelson handles closely held companies and family businesses along with corporate law and mergers and acquisitions, and he took his J.D. from Stanford University in 1974. Andrew M. Apfelberg works across corporate and finance, advertising and marketing, intellectual property and licensing, and mergers and acquisitions, and he holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California and a J.D. from Boston College Law School.

Litigation and focused practices

Other partners cover more focused fields. Sedina L. Banks practices environmental law, including environmental litigation, and she graduated from the University of California Davis School of Law in 2003. Nancy A. Bertrando works in employment law for both management and individuals, along with labor law and related litigation, and she earned her J.D. from the University of Southern California in 1985. Keith Patrick Banner practices business law and litigation, with a law degree from Northwestern University School of Law and undergraduate study at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Ricardo P. Cestero handles general litigation and also takes on entertainment, sports, and intellectual property litigation, and he works in English and Spanish. He graduated from the UCLA School of Law in 1999. Associates appear on the roster as well. Emily Avazian focuses on commercial litigation and earned her Juris Doctor from the University of California, Berkeley. Jonathan Boustani, a partner, concentrates on insurance law. The firm also names Sheri L. Bonstelle and Robert Cahill among its people.

Industries the firm works in

The site pairs its practice groups with a list of client industries. Named sectors include apparel, cannabis, technology, food and beverage, video games and streaming, sports, and financial services. That mix fits a Los Angeles firm with entertainment and media clients.

The cannabis and esports entries show the firm following newer regulated markets. In my opinion the industry list lines up with the practice areas: entertainment work overlaps sports and streaming, and corporate and tax work supports technology and financial services clients.

The firm also lists an international practice, which matches its stated work for clients around the world. As a reviewer, I read the pairing of industries and practice groups as a firm offering depth in a few markets alongside general corporate work.

Inside the core practice areas

The firm's real estate work covers acquisitions, leasing, and land use. Deals of that kind move through purchase agreements, title and zoning review, and a closing that transfers ownership. Land use questions often reach city planning departments, which decide permits and entitlements. Bob Baradaran's real estate practice fits here, and he pairs it with commercial transactions and UCC matters.

Environmental practice at the firm includes compliance and litigation. Compliance tracks federal and state statutes on air, water, and hazardous materials, and it often includes permits, reporting, and audits under those laws. When a dispute starts, it can pass through a state agency before it reaches a courtroom. Sedina L. Banks handles this area, including the litigation side.

Estate work and employment

The private client group handles trusts and estates planning and administration. Planning sets up wills and trusts while a client is alive. Administration follows a death, through probate or the settlement of a trust. The firm also lists a tax group, and estate and gift tax often shape planning decisions of this kind.

Employment work at the firm reaches both sides of the workplace. Nancy A. Bertrando advises management and also represents individuals, and she takes on labor law and related litigation. Employment disputes can begin at a state or federal agency, such as the EEOC, before either side files in court. As a single-office firm, Greenberg Glusker keeps its employment advice and its litigation in the same Los Angeles building.

Employment counseling and dispute preparation

Paulina Chau adds more detail to the firm's employment work. As an associate in the Employment Department, she defends employers in class actions and single-plaintiff wage and hour lawsuits. Her litigation work also covers harassment, discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination, misclassification, and breach of contract claims. She earned her J.D. from UCLA School of Law in 2021.

Chau's counseling work shows what can happen before a lawsuit begins. She advises on pre-litigation disputes, which allows an employer to assess a claim while the parties may still resolve it without a filed case. She also reviews employment agreements, workplace policies and procedures, and employee handbooks. Those assignments concern the documents that set expectations for compensation, conduct, discipline, and the employment relationship itself.

The combination of counseling and defense gives the department a clear working process. An issue may start with a policy question or a threatened claim, then move into formal litigation if the dispute continues. Chau's stated work covers both stages. Her class action experience is also distinct from an individual employment case because one lawsuit may address alleged practices affecting a wider group of workers.

Private client and tax attorneys

Darryl W. Cluster focuses on estate planning and tax law. He earned his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law after undergraduate study at the University of Southern California. His practice connects the creation of an estate plan with the tax questions that may affect how property passes to beneficiaries.

Daniel Cousineau provides additional tax experience. His practice focuses on taxation, and he received his law degree from George Washington University Law School. He also attended the University of Southern California. The record places Cluster's estate and tax work beside Cousineau's taxation practice, which indicates that tax matters are handled by attorneys with both private client and dedicated tax backgrounds.

Additional corporate experience

Callista L. Cody is an associate whose practice focuses on corporate law. She earned her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2021. Her presence adds an associate-level lawyer to the corporate group described elsewhere in the firm's materials.

The attorney record also identifies Daniel Cousineau and Cody alongside lawyers with longer professional histories. That mix matters for the way files can be staffed, since the published roster includes attorneys at different career stages and with distinct educational backgrounds. The available facts do not assign particular clients or transactions to Cody, so her stated corporate focus is the useful measure of her role.