L.A. Attorney Takes $2.2M Kickback in LADWP Scheme

LOS ANGELES – A shadow deal built on inflated utility bills and backroom payoffs has finally cracked. Paul O. Paradis, 58, of Scottsdale, Arizona, a former special counsel who simultaneously represented the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) and a ratepayer suing it, has agreed to plead guilty to a bribery charge. The price? Nearly $2.2 million for rigging a lawsuit against the very department he was supposed to be defending.

According to court documents filed today, Paradis, who ran the Manhattan-based Paradis Law Group, admitted to accepting the illegal payment for arranging a collusive lawsuit. The scheme centered around the 2013 implementation of a disastrous new billing system procured from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which left hundreds of thousands of LADWP ratepayers saddled with massively inflated and inaccurate bills. Predictably, the city and LADWP soon found themselves facing a barrage of class-action lawsuits.

In December 2014, the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office brought in Paradis and Paul R. Kiesel, a Beverly Hills lawyer (who is cooperating with the investigation and faces no charges), as special counsel to pursue a lawsuit against PwC. What wasn’t disclosed? Paradis was already representing Antwon Jones, a ratepayer with a legitimate claim against LADWP. Jones was kept in the dark about his attorney’s double-dealing. The City Attorney’s office was aware of this conflict.

The plan, authorized during a February 2015 meeting, was chillingly calculated. Paradis and Kiesel were directed to find an attorney who would be “friendly to the city” to represent Jones in a class-action lawsuit. This wasn’t about justice for ratepayers; it was about control. The Jones v. City of Los Angeles lawsuit was intended to be a vehicle for settling all outstanding LADWP billing claims on the city’s terms. Paradis recruited a lawyer, identified as “Ohio Attorney” in court documents, and promised to do most of the work on the case. The reward? 20 percent of the attorney’s fees as a secret kickback.

While simultaneously representing the city in a lawsuit against PwC (filed in March 2015 and later dismissed in September 2019), Paradis used inside information from the City Attorney’s Office and LADWP to draft the Jones v. City complaint. He then handed it over to “Ohio Attorney,” who filed the lawsuit in April 2015. Paradis and his team then moved to orchestrate a settlement favorable to the city. Paradis is now cooperating with the ongoing federal criminal investigation, but the full extent of the corruption remains to be seen.

Paradis has agreed to plead guilty to a single-count information charging him with bribery. This is not the end of the story. The Grimy Times will continue to dig into the layers of deceit surrounding the LADWP billing debacle and expose those who profited from the suffering of Los Angeles residents. The pursuit of justice doesn’t stop here.