Trial lawyers are made twice: once by where they come from, and once by what they do with it. Tom Vertanous came to this country from Iran at the age of four, was raised in Los Angeles, and built The Vertanous Firm into a practice that has recovered more than $60 Million for injured Californians, including a $22.6 Million jury verdict against the City of Los Angeles. He answers his own phone.
The Story
Tom Vertanous is the founder of The Vertanous Firm. He is a first-generation Armenian-American who immigrated to the United States from Iran at the age of four. He was raised in Los Angeles, and he built his practice in the same city that raised him.
That history is not biography for its own sake. It is the shape of the practice. Tom serves clients in English, Armenian, and Farsi, because nobody should have to describe the worst season of their life through a translator. And he answers his own phone, because the person trusting you with their case deserves the lawyer, not a call center.
The firm's cases reflect the same conviction: catastrophic injury, public entity liability, traumatic brain injury, and wrongful death. The cases where the other side has resources, lawyers, and time, and the client has one firm. Start with the Pasadena personal injury overview, or see the results the approach has produced.
Education and Training
Tom earned his B.S. from the University of Southern California, studying Political Science and Health Care Administration, and his J.D. from Loyola Law School Los Angeles in 2019.
During law school, he was selected as one of two extern students for the Hon. Stephen V. Wilson of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. A federal externship is an education you cannot buy: how a judge actually reads a brief, what persuades, what irritates, and what wins. Tom carried that education into a plaintiff's practice, where every filing is written for the person who will rule on it.
Before the externship came internships that still shape the firm's work: the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Sexual Crimes Division. The first two built the medical fluency that anchors the firm's injury practice. The third taught him how to work with survivors, and it is part of why the firm handles civil cases for survivors of sexual assault with the care they require.
The Medicine
Most injury lawyers learn medicine from deposition transcripts. Tom published it. He is the first author of a peer-reviewed paper on increasing organ donation through the professionalization of organ procurement organizations, published in Transplantation Proceedings in 2016: Vertanous T, et al., Leading Efforts to Increase Organ Donation Through Professionalization of Organ Procurement, Transplant Proc 2016;48(1):10-14, PMID 26915835.
Why does that matter to a client with a herniated disc or a brain injury? Because injury cases are medical cases. The lawyer who understands the imaging, the diagnosis, and the treatment plan builds a different case than the lawyer who forwards records to an expert and hopes. Tom reads the records himself, works with treating physicians as a colleague rather than a customer, and prices future care through life-care planning before the first demand goes out.
Nowhere does that matter more than in traumatic brain injury cases, where the defense strategy is almost always to shrink the medicine: to call a concussion minor, to call the symptoms subjective, to call the client recovered. A firm fluent in the medicine does not let that stand.
Tell us what happened. The consultation is free.
Free Case ReviewThe Record
Credentials open doors. Verdicts close arguments. The firm tried a dangerous condition of public property case, a pedestrian struck on the head by a falling municipal light-pole cap, through fourteen days of jury trial against the City of Los Angeles. The jury returned a $22.6 Million verdict, which TopVerdict ranked the No. 1 verdict in California and in Los Angeles County for 2023 in its category, Falling Object / Public Premises Liability, and among the Top 100 personal injury verdicts in the United States. The full story is in our account of the verdict, and the practice it came from is the firm's signature work: dangerous condition of public property.
The record extends beyond one trial. The firm's results include a $17.4 Million settlement for catastrophic injuries from an explosion at an illegally operated marijuana dispensary, a $6.8 Million sexual-assault recovery on theories of negligent security and premises liability, and more than $60 Million recovered for clients in total. Every result, with the story behind each number, is on the results page. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Recognition
Super Lawyers has named Tom to its Rising Stars list four consecutive years: 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026. The National Trial Lawyers named him to its Top 40 Under 40. TopVerdict has ranked the firm's results repeatedly, including the Top 10 premises liability verdicts in the United States for 2023, the Top 20 personal injury verdicts in California for 2023, and the Top 10 Bench Awards in California for 2023 (Dominguez v. Mental Health Center).
Awards are not the practice. They are the paper trail of one.
Community
Outside the courtroom, Tom co-founded HyerUnited, a Los Angeles nonprofit, and has served as its co-founder since 2012. HyerUnited has delivered more than $2 million in medical equipment to Armenia: not press releases, equipment. The same instinct runs the law practice. Find the person who needs help, and put real resources behind them.
Working With Tom
Tom has been a member of the State Bar of California since 2020, SBN 330760, and the firm's docket is deliberately focused: car, truck, and motorcycle crashes, traumatic brain injury, premises liability, dangerous condition of public property, wrongful death, dog bites, and civil cases for survivors of sexual assault. Focus is a feature. A firm that takes everything masters nothing.
The terms are simple. The consultation is free. The representation is on contingency: we advance the costs, and if there is no recovery, you owe no attorney fee. The phone number on this page rings the lawyer, in English, Armenian, or Farsi.
Ready to talk? Call, text, or send the form.
Get a Free ConsultationIf we don't win, you don't pay.
The consultation is free. The representation is on contingency. If there is no recovery, you owe no attorney fee.
Questions We Hear Every Week
Yes. The Vertanous Firm is built around one trial lawyer, not a caseload machine. Tom answers his own phone, meets his own clients, and makes the strategic calls on every file. When you call (626) 888-2223, you are not routed through an intake department. You reach the lawyer.
Nothing out of pocket. We work on contingency: the consultation is free, we advance the costs, and if there is no recovery you owe no attorney fee.
English, Armenian, and Farsi. Tom is a first-generation Armenian-American who immigrated from Iran at the age of four, and clients work with him directly in the language they think in. The details of an injury case live in nuance, and nuance should not have to survive a translator.
Catastrophic injury and civil litigation across California: car, truck, and motorcycle crashes, traumatic brain injury, premises liability, dangerous condition of public property, wrongful death, dog bites, and civil cases for survivors of sexual assault. If the case needs a different kind of lawyer, Tom will say so and point you in the right direction.
Because every injury case is a medical case. Tom is the first author of a peer-reviewed paper published in Transplantation Proceedings and interned at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and the Food and Drug Administration before law school. He reads the records, works closely with treating physicians, and builds damages on medicine the defense cannot wave away.
The office is at 301 N. Lake Ave, Suite 600, Pasadena, CA 91101, and the firm represents clients across the San Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles County, and California. Consultations are free, and Tom responds the same day.
Call or text (626) 888-2223, email tom@vertanouslaw.com, or send the short form on this page. The consultation is free, there is no obligation, and if the firm takes your case, you pay no fee unless there is a recovery.
Client Reviews
Ani A., Glendalevia Yelp"The guy who hit me had a low max coverage. I don't know what magic Vertanous Firm worked, but I got paid for my damages less than a year out from my accident, and was paid three times more than the policy limit."
Tony K., Burbankvia Yelp"Tom is the absolute best. He knows the law and he also knows medicine. One meeting with Tom and he was able to understand the medicine behind my condition and find the appropriate doctors."
Bobby S., Los Angelesvia Yelp"Tom is a straight shooter and he's whip-smart. He treated my case as though it were his own. He has a gift for compassion that sets him apart from other legal professionals."
Where We Work
From our office at 301 N. Lake Ave in Pasadena, Tom represents injured clients across the San Gabriel Valley and all of Los Angeles County, in English, Armenian, and Farsi.
Contact
Call, text, email, or send a brief message. We respond the same day. Free consultation. No fee unless we win.
