'The City Did What It Promised'

As the plaintiff attorney now in charge of the class action lawsuit at the center of the scandal, Kabateck is uniquely positioned as both an observer and a player, tasked with ensuring the class he now represents has been fairly compensated while watching as a federal investigation engulfs the key people who came before him.

Brian S. Kabateck of Kabateck LLP

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Elihu M. Berle appointed him and his firm Kabateck LLP to take over the reopened case in April 2019, nearly two years after approving the $67 million settlement. Kabateck said he's focused on "what happened, and how did it affect the ratepayers, the customers."'

The case is still open—a status conference is scheduled for next Thursday—as 35 LADWP customers appeal a special master's ruling on their refunds claims. But Kabateck and the city have tentatively agreed on fees, according to minutes from a Nov. 18 conference, and Kabateck said in an interview he's sure ratepayers received the refunds they were properly due. 

"I have a high level of confidence that the city did what it promised to do once there was a settlement," Kabateck said.

"It's now been not just checked but triple checked that the intent of this settlement—the spirit of the settlement—has been fulfilled," Kabateck continued. "My investigation revealed that."

Kabateck said Paradis refused to cooperate with his investigation. 

"He was not cooperative in 2019, and he was combative. His lawyers were combative with my investigation. … So yeah, I am surprised that now this has changed," Kabateck said. "As of recently, he was trying to file lawsuits against people."

Dismissed Defamation Lawsuit

Kabateck was referring to a defamation lawsuit Paradis filed pro se in the Central District in October 2020 that declared his innocence. 

Paradis said now-former Los Angeles chief deputy city attorney Scott Clark had a disqualifying conflict from his role in pushing the city's lawsuit against PricewaterhouseCoopers because of his past partnership with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, which represented PwC. 

Paradis also said ex-LADWP Board of Commissioners President Mel Levine, a Gibson Dunn partner and former U.S. representative, shouldn't have been making decisions regarding litigation that fed the firm's billable hours. The city of Los Angeles' new counsel in the PwC lawsuit at the firm Browne George Ross hired legal ethicist Ellen Pansky to examine the conduct of city attorneys, and Paradis' lawsuit said she "turned a blind eye" to information that cleared him of wrongdoing. The lawsuit said Pansky and Browne George lawyers acted maliciously to "deliberately paint Paradis in a highly detrimental false light." 

"Paradis' reputation as an attorney, contractor, manager and employee has been completely destroyed" because of their defamatory statements, the lawsuit said. "Paradis has lost business, repeatedly been refused employment and has been forced to file bankruptcy as a result of Defendatns' malicious false light scheme."

But Paradis didn't follow up. U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips in March granted a dismissal motion to which Paradis had never replied.

Seven months later, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Paradis had agreed to plead guilty to bribery. Prosecutors filed papers detailing a scheme in which, at the direction of the City Attorney's Office, Paradis found a friendly plaintiff's attorney—Jack Landskroner in Cleveland, Ohio—to sue the city, and Landskroner in exchange funneled Paradis $2.2 million from his firm's $10.3 million cut of the attorney fees. Landskroner died of cancer last June. Southern California attorney Michael Libman, who worked with Landsrkoner, was ordered last year to repay his $1.65 million fee, and also sanctioned $116,000 in sanctions and fined $44,000. Libman is appealing that order and did not respond to an interview request. 

Prosecutors filed Wright's plea agreement Dec. 6, detailing a scheme between him and Paradis to secure a $30 million LADWP contract for Paradis' company in exchange for Wright becoming CEO of the company and a $1 million salary. Wright admitted to destroying evidence and lying to the FBI, part of an attempted coverup with Paradis that included untraceable cellphones and a covert exchange at a downtown Los Angeles cafe.