Superior Court of California 

County of Los Angeles – West District  

Beverly Hills Courthouse / Department 205 

 

 

  This case arises from an attorney-client dispute.  Plaintiff Ashkan Rajaee retained Defendant Weinberg Gonser Frost LLP (“WGF”) to represent him in a dispute with a former business partner.  The parties entered into a written engagement agreement (the “Agreement”).   

The Agreement contains an arbitration provision.  The provision states that Plaintiff and WGF “agree to submit all disputes regarding any aspect of our lawyer-client relationship to binding arbitration by a single neutral arbitrator[.]”  (Ex. A to Matthews Decl., at p. 5.)  The provision defines “all disputes” to include “claims [Plaintiff] may have against [WGF] for malpractice, negligence, breach of contract or fiduciary duty and fraud, as well as with respect to fees and costs.”  (Id.)  Plaintiff signed the Agreement.  (Id. at p. 6.) 

Plaintiff is now suing WGF for malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty in connection with their handling of an underlying arbitration proceeding.  Plaintiff claims WGF failed to (1) identify and/or address numerous material omissions and erroneous provisions in an operating agreement, (2) identify and address his former business partner’s breaches of the operating agreement, (3) allege certain claims in an underlying arbitration between Plaintiff and his business partner, (4) allege meritorious affirmative defenses to the former business partner’s claims; (5) secure discovery for Plaintiff and object to discovery propounded by his business partner, (6) use discovery in a related case to dispose of certain issues, (7) object to evidence introduced by the former business partner at the arbitration hearing, and (8) call a rebuttal expert.  

On June 9, 2023, the Court granted WGF’s motion to compel arbitration and stayed all proceedings pending completion of the arbitration.  Plaintiff now seeks leave to file a cross-complaint against Tyler Brandon Davis and TOPDEVZ, LLC who he claims engaged in identity theft.  Given the stay on all proceedings, the Court DENIES Plaintiff’s motion for leave to file a cross-complaint.   

DATED: February 20, 2024 ___________________________ 

Edward B. Moreton, Jr. 

Judge of the Superior Court