Brotman Law

Focus and practice areas

Tax is the whole of this practice. Sam Brotman started the firm in San Diego on December 28, 2013, and it represents businesses, business owners, and high-net-worth individuals in California and across the country. The client mix points to matters where the dollar figures tend to be large and the filings tend to be complicated. A firm that keeps to one subject builds a narrow kind of depth, which helps when the other side of the table is a tax agency.

Defense and dispute work

On the defense side, the firm handles IRS audits, appeals, and criminal tax matters. It also takes on California state disputes with the Franchise Tax Board, the CDTFA, and the EDD, which cover income tax, sales and use tax, and payroll tax at the state level.

Tax debt resolution is a third strand of the defense work. The firm handles offers in compromise, penalty abatement, and installment agreements, the standard routes for a taxpayer who owes more than they can pay in one go. It also represents clients in Employee Retention Credit audits, appeals, and litigation. The credit drew heavy filing volume during the pandemic years, so audits and reviews followed, and a firm working in this area now spends much of its time defending claims already filed.

Planning and strategy

The strategy side is the forward-looking half of the practice. The firm advises on exit planning, entity restructuring, real estate and multi-state tax, international tax, cryptocurrency, and cannabis. The last two carry tax questions that older rules did not write for, so they call for lawyers who track how the agencies treat them now.

How audit and debt matters move

People weighing a tax firm usually want to picture the process first. An IRS audit tends to open with a notice, run through document requests and examiner review, and close in agreement, an appeal, or litigation. During that sequence, the firm's lawyers are the ones in contact with the examiner, which is the reason many taxpayers bring in representation.

Debt cases follow a different track. An offer in compromise asks the IRS to settle for less than the full balance, penalty abatement asks it to drop specific penalties, and an installment agreement sets a payment schedule over time. Each carries its own eligibility tests and forms, and the right choice turns on a client's income, assets, and filing history. This is general background on how such cases run, not a statement about any one result at the firm.

Federal and state matters side by side

Tax trouble in California often runs on two levels at once. The IRS handles federal income and payroll questions, while three state bodies handle their own slices: the Franchise Tax Board for state income tax, the CDTFA for sales and use tax, and the EDD for employment and payroll tax. A business under federal audit can find a state notice arriving in the same season.

Working both levels at once is part of the job for a firm that takes federal and state tax together. Brotman Law lists work on all three California agencies alongside its IRS practice, so a client with overlapping problems can keep them under one roof. Criminal tax matters fall at the serious end of this work, where an examination has turned into a question of intent, and those cases pull in different rules and a higher standard of proof.

How the team is built

Sam Brotman is the owner and managing attorney. He holds a J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law, an LL.M. in Taxation from the same school, and an MBA, so his training combines tax law with business management. An LL.M. in Taxation is a further degree taken after the J.D. and focused only on tax, so it points to training aimed squarely at this field. The firm credits him with representing clients in hundreds of IRS and state audits and with overseeing the recovery of $160 million in Employee Retention Credit claims.

Six associate attorneys work with him. Carlos Gomez, Sahar Bijan, Tara Pullano, and Jialin Dykstra hold senior associate titles. Rojin Bijan and Ricardo Laureano are associates. With seven attorneys on staff, the firm can share audit, appeal, and planning work across several people.

What the record shows

The firm reports handling more than 3,000 cases since it opened in 2013. That volume, spread across more than a decade, points to steady casework for many clients. Handling that many matters since 2013 also means the firm has met the same problems again and again, which is how a practice learns the patterns an agency tends to follow.

Brotman Law appears on the Inc. 5000 list, which ranks private companies by revenue growth. The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Reuters have quoted the firm's founder, and he sits on the Forbes Business Council. As a reviewer, I read those as marks of a practice with visibility beyond its own website.

Where the firm works

Brotman Law began in the Ocean Beach neighborhood of San Diego and moved to a Del Mar Heights office in November 2025. San Diego stays the base, and the firm represents clients throughout California and nationwide, which suits tax work since the federal code applies the same way in every state.

In my opinion, the firm is easy to place. It does tax law, led by a founder trained in both tax and business, and staffed by associates who carry the day-to-day files. It works from its Del Mar Heights office in San Diego and takes clients in California and beyond.