Press Release

Dykema, a leading national law firm, today announced that Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Member James (Jimmy) Azadian has been appointed to co-lead the firm’s national Appellate Appellate and Complex Motion Practice. Azadian joins Jill Wheaton as co-leader of the group. Azadian is one of the most prominent appellate lawyers in the country.

Azadian’s practice focuses on complex federal and state court litigation, raising cutting-edge and core business and constitutional issues. He has served as counsel in more than 270 appeals and writ proceedings covering a wide variety of industries and subjects across the country. Throughout his career, Azadian has been responsible for arguing cases that have had an immense impact on the law, some with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake.

In 2019, he served as embedded appellate counsel in two major cases, helping guide both trial teams to jury verdicts in favor of Dykema’s clients, with both cases being recognized by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal as California’s Top-10 defense verdicts for that year. In 2020, again serving in his capacity as embedded appellate counsel, Azadian helped guide another trial team to a jury verdict in favor of Dykema’s clients, with the case also being recognized as a Top-10 defense verdict for that year. “It may be the most important service appellate attorneys can offer,” notes Azadian. “We are adding immense value when working to support a Dykema trial team to make sure the case is best positioned for a win both in the trial court and in any forthcoming appeal.” Azadian has also been recognized for his prominent pro bono work, recently winning compassionate release for two aging federal prisoners, each of whom were serving 505-year sentences.

Outside of his practice, Azadian is extremely active with the federal circuit courts of appeals. He is the principal editor and contributing author of the Ninth Circuit’s Appellate Lawyers’ Practice Guide, available on the court’s website. He currently serves on the Advisory Board of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, following his recent service as Chair of the Ninth Circuit’s Appellate Lawyer Representatives, a leadership position to which he was appointed by Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Sidney Runyan Thomas. The Appellate Lawyer Representatives is a group of approximately 20 appellate attorneys chosen by the Ninth Circuit Judges from across the country as representing the very best in the field of appellate advocacy. He is also appointed to serve on the Ninth Circuit’s Law Clerk Resource Group, a subsection of the Workplace Environment Committee. Azadian is a court-appointed mentor to civil practitioners through the Ninth Circuit’s Mentorship Program and has served two terms as a court-appointed member of the Ninth Circuit’s Advisory Committee on Rules of Practice and Internal Operating Procedures. He is also active in national and local appellate bar groups, serving as Chair of the Orange County Bar Association’s Appellate Law Section and presently serving as the co-chair of the Appellate Subcommittee for the American Bar Association’s Business Litigation Section.

Azadian is widely published and frequently cited as a leading national authority on appellate advocacy. Throughout his career, he has received numerous professional accolades. In the past three years alone, Azadian was featured in the Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2020 “Thriving In Their 40’s” list and its “2020 Leaders Of Influence: Top Litigators & Trial Lawyers” list, while the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal selected two cases argued by Azadian as part of California’s “Top Appellate Reversals of 2019 and 2020,” and chose him for its “Top 40 Under 40 Attorneys,” in 2018.

Azadian earned a J.D. from the Pepperdine University School of Law and a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles. He clerked for Ninth Circuit Judge Consuelo Maria Callahan and U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia, Ricardo Manuel Urbina. Azadian has served as an adjunct professor teaching courses in Appellate Advocacy at Pepperdine University School of Law, Law and Economics at UCLA, the Supreme Court Practicum at Northwestern University School of Law, and Legal Ethics at USC.