Hooman Kazemi

Hooman Kazemi is the Assistant Program Director of the USC Dornsife Trial Advocacy Program. The Program consists of three components: the USC Mock Trial Team; the POSC 398, “Trial Advocacy: Theory and Practice” class; and the Pro Bono Program supported by the Jack Harding and Mohammad Usman Chaudhry endowed funds.

By day, Kazemi serves as a Trainer with the Los Angeles County Office of the Public Defender training new hires in advanced trial advocacy principles and mentoring them during their first jury trials. Previously, he handled felony cases with sentencing exposure ranging to lifetime imprisonment. He has tried nearly 75 cases to judges and juries at the felony, juvenile, and misdemeanor level, with exceptional results.

He is a 2004 alumnus of the Undergraduate Trial Advocacy Program, and has been a member of the coaching staff since Fall 2004. Following his graduation from U.S.C. in 2004, he enrolled at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, the Top-Ranked Trial Advocacy Law School on the West Coast. At Loyola, he completed the Williams Civil Rights Litigation Clinic and was selected to join the nationally ranked Byrne Trial Advocacy Team. He graduated in 2007, earning First Honors in Trial Advocacy and Advanced Trial Advocacy.

Kazemi not only teaches lawyers within his office how to try cases, but has been invited to conduct trainings in the larger legal community throughout California. He has conducted training sessions for newer lawyers and lectured at State Bar-approved legal education programs specifically on effective trial advocacy techniques. In 2010, Kazemi was invited to represent the Defense perspective on a panel on “Immigration Consequences and Criminal Law Litigation” before members of the Central District of California Federal Judiciary.

Based on his work for a client suffering from severe Post-Partum Depression, Kazemi was invited in 2013 to speak on a panel entitled “Psychosis: Child Abuse and the Law” at the State Capitol in Sacramento as part of a multi-day conference on Emerging Considerations in Maternal Mental Health.

Kazemi has been and continues to be well-respected by the bench and bar throughout Southern California. In 2010 he was named Trial Lawyer of the Year in recognition of his exceptional trial record by The Private Defenders (TPD), a state-wide criminal defense bar association comprised of both Private Criminal Defense practitioners and Public Defenders. He is currently a member of the Faculty of Law at TPD as well as an Executive Board Member.

• J.D. Loyola Law School, 2007
• B.A. International Relations, University of Southern California, 2004