Pantea Yashar

Pantea (pronounced Pawn-tee) Yashar 

Pantea advises on, litigates, and resolves a wide range of real estate and business disputes, with a focus on real property and projects in Southern California for large-scale commercial and residential landlords and developers. From protecting their rights to negotiating resolutions to contentious challenges involving developers, property owners, commercial lease holders, and buyers and sellers in the nation’s most expensive property markets, Pantea adds tremendous value with her strategic handling of complex matters.

Pantea manages the full spectrum of her clients’ legal needs and obligations. Pantea’s creatively assertive resolution style centers around positioning clients purposefully from the outset and powerful client advocacy. Appreciated for her market savvy and big-picture vision, Pantea has experience with all property types—shopping centers, mixed-use, retail, residential, industrial, and office buildings. Her litigation background also includes purchaser/seller and neighbor disputes, partition, easement, property line, quiet title, construction defect/breach, nuisance, and disability access issues.

Early in her career, Pantea served as Special Deputy Prosecutor for the City Attorney’s Office of Hermosa Beach, where she first chaired misdemeanor cases through verdict, and lectured on trial advocacy. Prior to joining ECJ, Pantea was a litigation attorney at the international law firm of Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

As an alumna of Harvard Law School, Pantea currently serves as the Vice President—At Large on the Executive Board of the Harvard Law School Association; this is a position she assumed following her two-year Presidency of the Association’s Los Angeles chapter. Southern California Super Lawyers has repeatedly recognized Pantea, initially as a Rising Star, and every year since 2017, as a Super Lawyer for excellence in real estate and business litigation. Pantea was named as a “Woman of Influence” by the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2022 and 2023, and as a Minority Leader of Influence in 2023. 

Pantea is an Associate Professor at Southwestern Law School. 

Represented numerous commercial landlords and tenants in various types of lease disputes, including prelawsuit negotiations and successfully prevailing in civil actions

Represented both buyers and sellers in a myriad of commercial and residential escrow and purchase disputes

Represented owners in tenant/landlord, easement, property line, partition, quiet title, trespass, construction and nuisance lawsuits

Represented commercial and residential landlords in criminal proceedings brought against them, and successful in obtaining dismissals

Represented stakeholder filing a lawsuit on behalf of other owners and lease holders against a public municipality in connection with public nuisance and negligence issues stemming from unsanitary conditions and obtained favorable settlement

Represented landlord and prevailed in evicting tenant in evidentiary hearing that took place over the course of several weeks to enforce a Stipulated Judgment, which included subpoenaing to testify, and impeaching the tenant, with a slew of police officers, City employees, and third-party contractors

Represented and obtained six-figure settlement for owner of single-family home in suit against prior sellers for fraudulent disclosures that failed to identify a series of construction defect issues with the property

Represented residential property owners in boundary line dispute with their neighbors, and obtained a permanent recorded easement for them and a 2-year restraining order against the neighbor 

Represented lender against borrow in arbitration and obtained an award of nearly $7,000,000, plus interest and attorneys’ fees

Represented international developer in fraudulent transfer and contract dispute in connection with a $20 million property

Represented widow in probate dispute with stepchildren over residential and business properties inherited by widow from late husband

Represented landlord in breach of contract, equitable indemnity and negligence claims against lessee

Represented client in lawsuit against real estate broker for fraud and extortion

Represented historical bagel company whose lease was being improperly terminated by their landlord and succeeded in positioning the client to remain in and purchase the building

Represented business owner in hotly contested business valuation dispute involving multiple defendants and prevailed on a dispositive anti-SLAPP motion

Represented property owners of an industrial building in an easement dispute against their neighbors

Represented lenders in a claim of usury in connection with an $850,000 promissory note

Represented virtual reality content developers in partnership dispute and litigation involving stolen content, digital media for virtual reality devices and equipment

Represented numerous celebrity interior designers in business and employment disputes

Represented international manufacturer and distributor of aerospace parts in nearly 600 person class action employment lawsuit

Represented a private hospital in merger with a university medical school to become a nationally distinguished academic medical center

Honors & Recognitions

Minority Leaders of Influence, Los Angeles Business Journal, 2023

Women of Influence: Attorneys, Los Angeles Business Journal, 2022 & 2023

Southern California Super Lawyers, 2017-present

Southern California Super Lawyers, Rising Stars, various years

Community & Professional

Associate Professor, Southwestern Law School

Harvard Law School Association, Vice President—At Large (July 2019 - Present)

Harvard Law School Association of Los Angeles, President (January 2017 - 2019)

Legal Aid Foundation, Los Angeles, Past First Vice Chair – Associates’ Advisory Board

Step Up Women’s Network

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