Assal Badrkhani
Assal Badrkhani is a Senior Paralegal at Arias Sanguinetti Trial Lawyers, based in the firm’s Northern California office. With more than 20 years of civil litigation experience, she provides strategic litigation support in personal injury, civil rights, sexual assault and abuse, catastrophic injury, wrongful death, and product liability cases.
Throughout her career, she has become known for her investigative approach, meticulous case preparation, and commitment to making sure no detail is overlooked. Her path into the legal profession began after leaving law school and building a career as a paralegal. What has kept her engaged in the profession for more than two decades is not only the work itself, but her longstanding passion for teaching.
A nationally recognized leader within the paralegal profession, Assal is Chair of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (CAALA) Legal Staff Education Committee and Vice Chair of the Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC) Legal Staff Education Committee. She also serves on the American Association for Justice (AAJ) Paralegal Committee for the 2026–2027 term, where she helps advance education and professional development for legal support professionals nationwide. Assal has been actively involved in professional legal organizations since approximately 2018, using those opportunities to teach, volunteer, and help strengthen the next generation of legal staff.
Fluent in Farsi, Assal’s work extends well beyond traditional litigation support. She has developed a reputation for uncovering critical evidence through creative witness investigations, informal discovery techniques, public records research, and legal research that strengthen cases before they ever reach trial. Her passion for investigation, particularly in sexual abuse and civil rights litigation, has helped uncover witnesses, corroborate survivor testimony, and build compelling cases that make meaningful differences in clients’ lives.
She believes paralegals should be empowered to play substantive roles on litigation teams. For Assal, legal staff should not think of themselves as “just staff.” She believes paralegals can and should conduct legal research, draft motions, investigate cases, and take responsibility for meaningful portions of litigation work. That philosophy is a major reason she remains so committed to education and professional development within the legal community.
An accomplished educator and frequent speaker, Assal regularly presents for organizations including CAOC and CAALA on litigation strategy, witness investigation, discovery techniques, and professional development for paralegals. She is deeply committed to mentoring legal staff and believes investing in education strengthens both individual professionals and the legal profession as a whole. Her leadership has helped shape educational programming for hundreds of legal support professionals throughout California. Her own experience has also shaped her belief in formal paralegal education. Assal found that earning her paralegal certificate expanded the types of firms interested in her work and increased her professional opportunities. She encourages legal staff to view certification and continuing education as investments in both their skills and their long-term careers.
Her contributions have earned significant recognition throughout the plaintiffs’ bar, including being named the American Association for Justice’s “Paralegal of the Year” in 2023 and receiving the CAOC “Presidential Award of Merit” on two occasions. She is an active member of AAJ, CAOC, CAALA, and the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association (SFTLA), where she continues to advocate for excellence in legal education and professional collaboration.
A graduate of University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in Political Science, Assal also earned her Paralegal Certificate from California State University. Outside the office, her greatest accomplishment is raising her daughter, whom she proudly calls her “amazing mini-me.”