Sarkis Jacob Babachanian (“Babachanian” or “Sark”) is an attorney and counselor at law admitted to practice in all California courts and in the United States District Court and Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California. Babachanian is proud to run an ethical law practice and has always been in good standing with the State Bar of California. Babachanian’s California Bar number is 174014 and you can click here to check his discipline record.
Babachanian’s practice centers on litigation. Emphasis is on criminal defense, police misconduct, personal injury and business law (including business transactions like preparing contracts and creating business entities). Babachanian is also a trained, experienced mediator of state and federal litigated cases. For client convenience, he also serves as a California notary public (though currently his commission is up for renewal). Click here to learn more about Babachanian’s practice areas.
Babachanian has been in private law practice since being admitted to the Bar in 1994. From the start, our offices were located in the Los Angeles area suburb of Glendale where they remain today.
Just before law school, Babachanian served as Executive Director of the Armenian Relief Society’s Glendale, California-based Earthquake Relief Fund for Armenia. The ERFA was a relief agency created to provide help to victims of the magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck Armenia on December 7, 1988, killing at least 25,000 people and injuring untold others. Babachanian established and managed the ERFA’s offices, implemented the Executive Council’s policies and directives, coordinated with other charities, researched donation and grant sources, conducted media relations, supervised staff and volunteers and, of course, raised funds. Working with the ERFA was a blessing in that Babachanian could do good by helping a stricken people while developing valuable skills.
Babachanian attended evening courses at Southwestern Law School. Southwestern built upon the foundation laid during undergraduate Criminal Justice and Business Administration studies at the California State University, Los Angeles.
While at Southwestern, Babachanian held employment and externships exposing him to a broad spectrum of legal knowledge and experience. While in his first year of law school, Babachanian worked full-time as a law clerk with what is said to be “the world’s largest law firm” – the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.His specialty was to work with criminal prosecutors and peace officers to save the people of the state of California resources by sending probation violators to jail without the need for expensive trials on new charges. We did this using inexpensive but Constitutionally sound probation violation hearings. It was an interesting job that offered exposure to the inner workings and realities of the criminal justice system.
While still in law school, Babachanian left the DA’s Office and joined a specialized judicial research and support team, the Los Angeles County Superior Court (then Municipal Court) Planning and Research Unit. As a PRU Legal Research Assistant, he delved into issues of civil and criminal law and procedure for Los Angeles County judges and others who subscribed to the PRU’s services and publications. Babachanian conducted short and long-term legal research, prepared legal memoranda for judges and staff attorneys, analyzed new legislation and helped prepare the PRU’s annual Legislative Report for publication. In short, his time at the PRU made him very good at quickly finding reliable answers to a broad spectrum of legal questions.
Southwestern’s curriculum also offered Babachanian the opportunity to participate in two clinical externships. The first was as a California Bar Certified Law Clerk. Babachanian was assigned to his former employer – the LADA’s Office – this time at the Kenyon Juvenile Justice Center in South Central Los Angeles immediately after the 1992 LA Riots. This was a particularly important rotation because it opened Babachanian’s eyes to a world he had never experienced first hand – one of burned-out inner city neighborhoods home to a lot of good people who were being terrorized by hard, sometimes brutal…children. It was Babachanian’s job to represent the People in numerous arraignments, plea agreements, witness and victim interviews, and the like. Babachanian tried 14 cases while under the detached supervision of a prosecutor and won them all, earning the highest rating from Kenyon’s Deputy-in-Charge. Still, the experience left Babachanian with the realization that the juvenile justice system was badly flawed. He also realized he was hooked on being in a courtroom.
Babachanian’s final law school externship – also as a California Bar Certified Law Clerk – was with the Office of the City Attorney, in Glendale, California, the city where he now practice. Babachanian gained valuable civil litigation experience through drafting pleadings and motions, watching trial and appellate lawyers in action and learning to tread carefully in what Prof. Van Alstyne’s has called the “mine field” of government tort claims law. The high-point of this externship was service as a mediator and hearing officer in neighbor dispute and city code cases; there’s no substitute for experience, and when it comes to dispute resolution, this is where he started getting his.
Babachanian looks forward to another couple of decades in law practice. Thus far, it’s been an interesting journey.