Neal S Zaslavsky

Neal S. Zaslavsky is the principal at the Law Office of Neal S. Zaslavsky, a Professional Corporation.  Neal has extensive experience in both law and business, with a professional career that has spanned nearly a quarter of a century.

Neal graduated from Southwestern Law School with Distinction for Public Service, where he was a part of the prestigious SCALE program, which enables a select group of students to complete law school's traditional three-year program in just two years.  Prior to law school, Neal had successfully worked for over 15 years in Management and Political Consulting.  He brings that broad range of experience and a keen understanding of many different industries and disciplines to the firm and to each client.

As a practicing attorney, Neal has represented a wide variety of clients, including individuals, small- and medium-sized public and private businesses, Fortune 500 companies – and everyone else in between.   Prior to establishing his own firm, Neal served as Managing Partner at the Nexus Law Group, a boutique business litigation firm in Pasadena, California.

Neal is a classic litigator and has worked on a broad spectrum of matters involving:

• Breach of business contracts
• Residential and commercial landlord-tenant actions
• International law and Hague Convention issues
• Employment discrimination
• State and federal civil rights violations
• Breach of fiduciary duty suits
• Partnership control and dissolution matters
• Major collection and judgment enforcement matters
• Adversary proceedings in Bankruptcy Court
• Probate litigation
• Commercial real estate disagreements
• Intellectual property suits
  
  …and a full array of other issues and torts that arise in the course of business and real life.  Neal also has significant experience on the transactional side and firmly believes that the best way to minimize future litigation risk is to have a solid contractual foundation for each transaction.  He is equally comfortable in the courtroom and the board room.

In representing his clients, Neal brings a rare combination of personal, business and professional experience to the table.  Neal has an insatiable passion for justice and fiercely fights for his clients.  He also takes the time to learn about the non-legal factors that affect each litigation…the emotional drivers underlying each client's desire to litigate or need to defend against a litigation that has been commenced.  Neal firmly believes that while litigation certainly involves using the justice system to right the wrongs that have been done, it also involves understanding and managing expectations, dealing with unique personalities, and addressing the core fundamental principles held by individual and corporate litigants.  This unique combination makes Neal a successful and empathetic litigator.

In his role as Management Consultant, Neal worked with diverse business entities across the world.  These industries include:

• Real Estate
• Housing
• Land Use
• Entertainment and Media
• Government Affairs
• Medical
• Personal and Professional Services
• Fashion
• Marketing and Advertising
• Technology and Information Systems
• Specialty Products

Neal consulted for both start-ups and long-standing companies. In that role, he has authored business plans, conducted operational audits for expansions and restructuring, facilitated training, prepared personnel policies and procedures, and developed media and marketing strategies. He has also negotiated contracts for real estate, construction, employee benefit packages, product development and placement, manufacturing requirements and supply chain management.

In his role as Political Consultant, Neal advised and managed more than two dozen political campaigns at the local, state and national levels. He has been invited to lecture on various political and legal topics at several major universities in the United States and Argentina.

Over the last 25 years, Neal has served on the boards of a number of community-based and public service organizations.  Neal served on the Board of Directors of the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for seven terms and co-founded the Chamber's political action committee. He has served as President of the Rotary Club of West Hollywood and was a member of the Rotary Club of Westwood Village. He also served for three terms on the City of West Hollywood's Eastside Project Advisory Committee, the city's advisory commission for redevelopment and quality of life issues on the then-blighted eastside of the city. 

Neal served as the commission's Vice-Chair until redevelopment agencies were eliminated as part of Governor Brown's budget reforms. Neal was recently appointed to the City of West Hollywood's Eastside Working Group, a special task force charged with creating a long range Community Plan for the city's rapidly developing east side.  Neal is also a member of the Board of Directors of the West Hollywood Library Foundation.

During his summer term of law school, Neal lived in Buenos Aires, where he worked as a judicial extern with the Defensoría Oficial ante la Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Nación Argentina (Defender General of the Nation before the Supreme Judicial Court of Argentina). During his time in Buenos Aires, Neal was invited to lecture on topics related to the American legal system for two classes at the University of Buenos Aires Law School.  He co-authored a paper with Argentine Federal Judge Dr. Daniel Horacio Obligado on American Jury Systems that was later published in the Foundation for Higher Studies in Juridical Sciences. While in Argentina, Neal conducted legal research on the issue of same-sex marriage under Argentine law prior to its legalization in Argentina. Upon returning home to southern California, he presented an award-winning paper on the subject of same-sex marriages in Argentina.

Upon completion of his coursework, Neal was a law clerk with Bet Tzedek Legal Services, a well-regarded pro bono law firm in Los Angeles. He was assigned to the Housing Conditions and Impact Litigation unit where he worked closely with the directing attorneys in conducting comprehensive research and drafting case materials in the areas of landlord/tenant, housing, consumer protection and other related topics.

Neal earned a dual B.A. from the University of Arizona in both Political Science and Spanish Language and Literature. Subsequently, he was a Graduate Fellow, pursuing his Ph.D. in the Department of Political Science.  He taught classes on American Government, State and Local Government and Voting Behavior. Many local, national and international media outlets have tapped Neal's expertise for political analysis of a number of different campaigns and various pressing issues of the day.

Neal holds his J.D. with Distinction for Public Service from Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. While in law school, Neal received academic awards for Legal Ethics, Federal Tax Law and Legal Writing. Consistent with his commitment to public service and high ethical principles, during law school he served on the Student-Faculty Relations Committee, the University's enforcement body for the Code of Academic Integrity.

Neal is a member in good standing with the State Bar of California and is licensed to practice before all state courts in California, as well as in the federal courts of the Central District of California, the Northern District of California, and in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  He has also successfully appeared before the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California and the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board in Southern California, the Central Valley, and in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Neal has also appeared at numerous state and federal mediation and arbitration proceedings throughout the State of California.  Neal has participated in international legal proceedings and has taken overseas depositions pursuant to Letters Rogatory issued by judges in California.  Neal has also advised on legal proceedings outside of California and has clients across the country.  Neal is a member of the American Bar Association, the Los Angeles County Bar Association and the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles.

Neal is an avid traveler and has visited some 44 U.S. states, 4 Canadian provinces and 30 countries across North, Central, and South America, Europe, and Asia.

Neal can be contacted at