Stephen Yagman

Stephen Yagman, (born December 19, 1944 in Brooklyn, New York) is a former federal civil rights lawyer.

Over his legal career, Stephen Yagman developed a reputation for being a civil rights advocate, a crusader against police brutality, and a "pugnacious civil rights lawyer." In County of Los Angeles v. U.S. Dist. Ct. (Forsyth v. Block), 223 F.3d 990 (9th Cir. 2000), federal Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski said, "ounsel, Stephen Yagman, has a formidable reputation as a plaintiff's advocate in police misconduct cases; defendants in such cases may find it advantageous to remove him as an opponent."

Yagman, known as "a prominent and controversial civil rights lawyer," relentlessly pursued "legendary" civil rights cases against police, and made his name suing the LAPD,

Yagman launched national reform of the complaint and disciplinary system for federal judges, and his complaints of judicial misconduct against U.S. Dist. Judge Manuel L. Real "w at the center of the controversy over effectiveness and exerted a uniquely powerful influence on subsequent attempts at reform." The United States Judicial Conference cited Yagman in adopting its 2008 nationawide procedures for handling complaints of misconduct against federal judges.

In his 2011 book, Lawyers on Trial, UCLA School of Law Professor of Law Emeritus Richard L. Abel listed Yagman in the chapter "Championing the 'Defenseless' and 'Oppressed,'" rated him a "highly competent, dedicated lawyer hampion of unpopular causes," and likened him to Clarence Darrow and William M. Kuntsler.

In 1986, Yagman successfully challenged a proposed nationwide suspension of federal jury trials due to budget shortfalls, in Armster v. U.S. Dist. Ct., 792 F.2d 1423 (9th Cir. 1986). In a unanimous opinion in a related proceeding, Armster v. U.S. Dist. Ct., 817 F.2d 480 (9th Cir. 1987), Judge Stephen R. Reinhardt said, "Yagman's vigilance in the protection of his clients' constitutional rights served all citizens. His fortitude and tenacity in the service of his civil rights clients exemplifies the highest traditions of the bar. As Supreme Court Justice Brandeis noted, 'he great opportunity of the American bar is and will be to stand . . . to protect the interests of the people.'" U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark (1966–69) seconded Judge Reinhardt's accolade: "Only the valiant have dared to sue the police for lawless violence and excessive force against the people. Foremost among the valiant is Stephen Yagman, who has bearded the lion in his den time and time again." University of California Irvine Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky held Yagman to be "a very important civil rights lawyer for a long period of time," said Yagman was "particularly important to bringing challenges to police abuse," and "helped to develop the law in this area in a very positive way and represented a lot of people who needed counsel." In 1994, Yagman prevented the implementation of the anti-immigrant, California Proposition 187, by obtaining a preliminary injunction barring public schools from excluding undocumented students, and then converting the preliminary injunction into a permanent injunction, after the Proposition was declared unconstitutional.

On November 22, 2010, Yagman was disbarred, based on June 22, 2007 federal convictions for one count each of tax evasion and bankruptcy fraud, and 11 counts of money laundering. Yagman contended that the IRS selectively and vindictively prosecuted him, ignoring the difference between tax avoidance, that is legal, and tax evasion, that is not, because, as Idaho Special Prosecutor (1997–2001), he prosecuted homicide charges against FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi for allegedly murdering Vicki Weaver at Ruby Ridge, Idaho in 1992 and because on January 19, 2002 he brought the first Guantanamo Bay detainee case and won it on December 18, 2003. At his November 27, 2007 sentencing, U.S. Dist. Judge Stephen V. Wilson said of Yagman: "he has entered a field of law that's difficult. He is always the underdog, and he is facing the establishment at its fiercest. So anyone who gets into that arena is brave and has a mission. He tried cases in my court ... very competently." The convictions were upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2009, and remain under habeas corpus review on the ground that they were a legal impossibility.