Timothy V. Kassouni

Timothy Kassouni is  the founder  of Kassouni Law.  He has over  20 years civil litigation and appellate experience, with an emphasis on land use, property rights, real estate, and construction litigation.

While as a Loyola Law School student, Mr. Kassouni completed a judicial externship with Justice David N. Eagleson of the California Supreme Court, was President of the Loyola Law School Federalist Society, and studied eminent domain and inverse condemnation law under professor Gideon Kanner.  Mr. Kassouni later received the first Fritz B. Burns Foundation public interest fellowship with the Pacific Legal Foundation, where he served from 1989-1991.  While at the Pacific Legal Foundation, he argued before the California Supreme Court on vested rights issues and also submitted briefs before the United States Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on various constitutional property rights issues.

Mr. Kassouni served as a temporary  Deputy District Attorney with the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office in 1991, and subsequently practiced complex land use, real estate, and construction litigation with firms in Orange and Sacramento Counties.  His law review article, "The Ripeness Doctrine and the Judicial Relegation of Constitutionally Protected Property Rights," was published by the California Western Law Review in 1992 and has been cited numerous times by scholars in the land use field.

From 2005 to 2008, Mr. Kassouni worked with Ronald A. Zumbrun as Senior Attorney with the Zumbrun Law Firm.  From 2008 to 2009 Mr. Kassouni was Legal Director with the Zumbrun Law Firm.

Mr. Kassouni specializes in land use law, including inverse condemnation, eminent domain, government abuse, permitting issues, California Coastal Commission issues, and building and planning department abuses.  Mr. Kassouni also has extensive experience in real estate and construction defect litigation.  His litigation expertise in land use law has led to legal victories and the setting of legal precedents throughout the state of California.

Mr. Kassouni graduated from Loyola Law School in 1989 and the University of California at Berkeley in 1985 with an A.B. in philosophy. 

Highlights

Oral argument and amicus curiae briefing before the California Supreme Court in

Beverly Towers Inc. v. City of West Hollywood (1991) 52 1184 (local

governments precluded from enforcing condominium conversion regulations after the property owner obtains all discretionary approvals).

As lead trial counsel representing a self storage company, Mr. Kassouni obtained an inverse condemnation liability ruling against the County of Alamenda after a six day trial.  The Court concluded that the County of Alameda acted arbitrarily in denying building permits, and ordered a second trial for damages in March, 2010.

As lead trial counsel representing a self storage

Representation of over 75 individual property owners in construction defect

litigation in Orange County, California, generating multi-million dollar settlements.

Lead counsel in land use litigation, including inverse condemnation, civil rights,

exactions, vested rights, and estoppel challenges to governmental regulation.

Lead counsel in real property actions including quiet title, prescriptive easements, mining issues (including Surface Mining and Reclamation Act), breach of contract, specific performance, subsurface oil and gas rights, conservation easements, and foreclosures.

Invalidation of non-competition covenant in complex litigation action against a

publicly traded company on behalf of large group of orthodontists, which triggered

a multi-million dollar nationwide settlement.

Successful representation of developers  in land use and construction defect

litigation in Orange County, California.

Successfully opposed anti-slapp motion brought by Topanga Canyon resident, on the ground that trespass on private property for the purpose of obtaining evidence of an alleged Coastal Act violation is not protected speech.

Publications

The Ripeness Doctrine and the Judicial Relegation of Constitutionally

Protected Property Rights. California Western Law Review, Volume 29, Number 1

(Fall 1992)

 The Daily Journal California's leading legal newspaper.  The following articles  

were drafted by Mr. Kassouni and Ronald A. Zumbrun: The Uses and Abuses of

Conservation Easements; The Task of Restoring Private Property Rights

after Decades of Abuse; Ninth Circuit Resurrects Due Process Protections

for Property Owners; The Cost of Wetlands in /Half Moon Bay; The Unrepentant

Sins of the California Coastal Commisison