Antonio K Kizzie

Experienced Los Angeles civil rights/police misconduct trial attorney and flim, tv, and music entertainment transactional & litigation attorney. 

Antonio K. Kizzie, Esq. (“Kizzie”) is the founder of The Kizzie Firm, APC, and is an experienced state and federal litigation, trial and appellate attorney with hundreds of cases and over a dozen state and federal civil and criminal jury trials as first chair under his belt. As founder of The Kizzie Firm, APC, Kizzie proudly and fearlessly represents plaintiffs in personal injury, wrongful death, and civil rights/police misconduct/discrimination cases to obtain justice and compensation for their injustices. Kizzie also proudly represents creatives, artists, talent, writers, producers, influencers, and production companies in transactions and litigations in the music, film, fashion, and television industries.

In 2015 at the age of 28, the National Bar Association named Kizzie as one of the “Top 40 Lawyers Under 40.” In 2022 at the age of 35, Kizzie was selected to join the American Board of Trial Advocates (“ABOTA”), an invitation only national association of more than 7,300 experienced trial lawyers and judges and consists of 96 chapters spread across all 50 states and the District of Colombia with a mission to foster improvement in the ethical and technical standards of practice in the field of advocacy to the end that individual litigants may receive more effective representation and the general public be benefited by more efficient administration of justice consistent with the traditional principles of litigation.

In 2008, Mr. Kizzie received his Bachelors of Arts in Legal Communications from Howard University (“HU”) in Washington, D.C. At HU, he became the first Richard D. Parsons Time Warner Cable Scholar, received a full HU Academic Legacy Scholarship, was a Rhodes Scholar nominee, and is featured on the John H. Johnson School of Communications Hall of Fame. Mr. Kizzie was also a participant in the Thurgood Marshall College Fund Leadership Institute, Diversity Leadership Program, and the American Institute of Foreign Study in Granada, Spain, where he developed a conversational fluency in Spanish. While in undergrad, Mr. Kizzie interned at the United States Department of Justice, Office of Communications and the Executive Office of the D.C. Superior Courts.

Kizzie is licensed to practice law in California and Washington, D.C.; and has been admitted to all federal districts of California; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; the U.S. District Court for Colorado and Washington, D.C.; and the U.S. Supreme Court. He has argued cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, California Supreme Court, and was lead trial and appellate counsel in a matter that went before the United States Supreme Court.

In 2008, Kizzie received his B.A. in legal communication magna cum laude from Howard University. After graduating from University of California, Los Angeles School of Law with his J.D. in 2011 at the age of twenty-four (24), Kizzie served as a Volunteer Deputy City Attorney prosecuting DUIs for the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, Metropolitan Branch.

During the beginning of his legal career, Kizzie primarily worked as a public entity defense attorney for the County of Los Angeles regarding civil rights claims, including excessive force and wrongful arrest, where he became a successful defense trial attorney with a near perfect record of victories on behalf of his clients. During this same time, Kizzie also took on personal injury and civil rights plaintiff cases involving excessive force and discrimination against other law enforcement agencies, at times even winning a plaintiff civil rights case via federal summary judgment/adjudication before trial, which was unheard of at that time. This combination of experiences provided Kizzie with the invaluable insight and rare skillset to be able to evaluate, strategize, and litigate a case from both a plaintiff’s and defendant’s perspective from pleading to trial and appeal. Accordingly, Kizzie brings over a decade of deep understanding of police training, policies, and tactics to the civil rights practice, which makes him a formidable ally and advocate for plaintiffs who are victims of police misconduct.

As a first-generation graduate student and attorney, Kizzie values youth mentorship and community service. Accordingly, Kizzie routinely speaks to high school students at Dorsey, Crenshaw, and other Los Angeles high schools regarding their duties, rights, and responsibilities “When You Turn 18.” Kizzie also enjoys coordinating and volunteering with free legal clinics through the County of Los Angeles to educate the community on their rights, provide expungements, provide referrals to non-profits and legal resources, and perform other pro-bono services. You may also find Kizzie volunteering to pack food at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, cooking breakfast for unhoused women at the Downtown Women’s Center, planting trees in urban areas with TreePeople, and providing legal services to creatives at California Lawyers for the Arts.