DO NOT HIRE BRUCE A. MANDEL, ATTORNEY in TORRANCE CA
DO NOT HIRE BRUCE A. MANDEL ATTORNEY in TORRANCE CA

The following is a detailed account of a client’s experience with Bruce A. Mandel, a family law attorney based in Torrance, California.


My name is Daniel Weber. I hired Bruce A. Mandel in March of 2024, after meeting with him in person, and receiving his word that he would help me with my child custody and support case. Instead, what followed was 5 months of missed deadlines, massive mistakes, ignored phone calls/emails, bad and inaccurate advice, midnight scrambles to complete tasks at the last second, and finally, unethical client abandonment during a crucial point in the case. If you had a similarly terrible experience with Bruce Mandel, be sure to read the bottom of this page for advice on how we can help each other.

Below is a summary of my experience as Bruce’s client, an experience which ultimately included a drastically higher financial cost than expected, and ended with such a massive blunder by Bruce and his team that I felt I was essentially tricked by my own counsel into giving up over $130k in short term and long term financial gains and reimbursements.

These 14 issues are listed roughly chronologically, so some of the worst ones are near the bottom:

Issue #1 – I was Billed for a Pitch Meeting

When I met with Bruce on 3/14/2024, during the meeting in which he pitched his services to me and I hired him, I didn’t expect to be billed for that time since Bruce spent a lot of that time basically talking me into hiring him.  It was essentially a pitch meeting, yet I was billed as if I was receiving legal advice.  I don’t believe Bruce answered a single legal question for me during that meeting, as I had hoped, instead he just convinced me to “leave it with (him) and (he) would take care of everything”.

Issue #2 – Bruce ignored my request to keep Demands for Documents small and focused.  Instead, he drastically expanded the scope of the case, which coincidentally increased fees.

I explicitly told Bruce during our meeting on March 14th, 2024, that I wanted to contain the scope of the case as much as possible, and I wanted to review any documents before they were sent to the other side. Instead, on April 3rd, a paralegal at Bruce’s office sent a very large list of generic Demands to the other side, without my review or approval, and without including the specific questions I had asked Bruce via email, week before, to include in the Document Demand letter. 

Issue #3 – The sending of my Demand for Discovery document was inexplicably delayed 2.5 weeks at a crucial time.

I had literally handed Bruce my own detailed list of Demands, already formatted properly to send to the other side, when I met with him on March 14th, 2024, based almost exactly on the same list I received from the other side, and I told him I was ready to send those immediately that same day, but instead, Bruce waited 2.5 weeks, then sent a wildly broad and generic list of Demands to the other side without my approval. 

This inexplicable delay meant we were backed into a corner and received the Demand Response from the other side with only about 24 hours to review everything prior to our court date.  The other side had about 3 weeks to review my discovery documents, while I only had about 24 hours to review their documents, due to this unnecessary and unexplained delay.

Issue #4 – Bruce A. Mandel was unresponsive and tardy.

On March 18th, March 24th, March 25th, and March 29th  I sent emails to Bruce and his team asking questions and asking for a status update since I was worried we had not filed our Discovery demands in time to receive documents prior to court.  An assistant finally told me on March 29th that they would be sending out Discovery demands “today or Monday”, which resulted in Issues #2 and #3 above.

Issue #5 – The first nearly missed deadline – Responses to Form Interrogatories required a literal 11th hour scramble to complete before midnight.

Instead of working on the necessary documents days or weeks in advance, Bruce’s office staff sent their draft response at 3:35pm on April 15th, when the deadline was midnight that day, forcing me to scramble with a chain of emails back and forth to make the information accurate, with a final signature being added to the document at 11:04pm, less than one hour before the deadline expired.  Imagine if I had been asleep or out of town, this deadline would have been missed.  Not a single word from Bruce himself was received during this crisis.  The accuracy of the document most likely suffered due to the unnecessary rush to meet the deadline, after sitting around for over a month since I engaged Bruce as my attorney.

Issue #6 – The first MISSED DEADLINE, and Mandel’s staff drastically changed the content of my desired response to the other side’s Responsive Declaration.

On April 25th, 2024, I was notified by Mandel’s staff that we received the other side’s Responsive Declaration, and that I could respond to it if I wished.  I immediately told them yes, I wanted to reply. 4 days later, on April 29th, I sent my counsel a thorough response approximately 5 pages long including 14 supporting exhibits, all properly referenced within the document. I expected my counsel to make minor tweaks and reword language as needed, quickly since we only had 2 days until the deadline to response passed on May 1st.  I followed up with 2 more emails on April 29th and May 1st (at 11:29am) asking for a status update since I knew the deadline was at 5pm that day, but my emails were ignored until I finally received their draft response at 3:43pm, an hour and 17 minutes before the deadline!

The response they sent me was DRASTICALLY different from what I had sent them 2 days earlier.  There were countless mistakes including inaccuracies, blatantly false statements, and typos, but even more importantly, they completely omitted at least SIX of the major points I had wanted to address in my response!  And we only had about an hour left to fix everything before the deadline, after I realized how drastically different their draft was from my own!

After a brief and frantic call with Bruce, where he basically said “too bad, this is what we have, so you can either spend the next few minutes tweaking it or we just won’t file a response” (paraphrasing) I scrambled to fix as many problems as possible using one of Bruce’s assistants in the MINUTES we had left before the 5pm deadline, but the end result was still very sloppy and inaccurate in addressing the issues I had addressed in my own draft days earlier.  I ended the call with the assistant at 4:58pm by asking her “do you need anything else from me?” and she said “no, I will send this”.  I said “OK, I am late for my son’s baseball game” and I left my home.

At 5:30pm, 30 minutes AFTER the deadline had passed, I received an email request for signature from the assistant, but I did not see it right away since I was watching my son’s baseball game.  The assistant called me a few minutes later and told me I needed to sign the agreement.  I signed it, but it was now 47 minutes past the deadline.  All of this could have been easily avoided considering I had sent a full response with exhibits days earlier!

This document ended up being absolutely crucial to my case, as the judge even referred to it during the hearing, yet we almost completely blew the case, all because Bruce waited until the last possible second to respond and file! I probably should have fired my counsel at this point, but with the scheduled court date only a week away, I felt trapped.

Issue #7 – Again, forced to sign something with less than 2 hours to spare before the deadline at midnight.

On April 30th I received the other side’s request for Supplemental Responses, with a due date of May 6th.  I provided my counsel with all of the supplemental responses and documents by May 2nd, 4 days before the deadline, and I specifically stated that I would not have much free time after the morning of May 3rd, so I wanted to address this issue immediately “and not cut it close with another deadline”… but instead, I didn’t hear a word from my counsel for 4 more days until I followed up on the due date, May 6th at 7:44pm, when I said “I presume these documents were sent to the other side today, correct?”.  Two hours later, I received a request from one of Mandel’s staff to sign a form after 10pm, only 2 hours ahead of the deadline, even though I had supplied everything needed more than 4 days earlier!   Again, there was no time to review or revise anything at this point, so I had to just hope that things were accurate.

Issue #8 – Court appearance embarrassment! Bruce double dipped with another case, was tardy, and racked up fees for no reason.

The morning of our court date on May 8th, Bruce called me around 8am, minutes before our 8:30am court case began.  He told me that he had another case being tried at the same time, so he would be “in and out” of the remote court appearance.  Bruce had previously told me, when I hired him, that his court calendar was totally clear on my court date, which was as big part of why I hired him in the first place.  I was very unhappy to hear that his attention would be divided, but I felt like I had no choice but to proceed, as I definitely did not want another continuance.

The court official started with a rollcall, and when my case was called, Bruce did not answer because he was not actually on the court’s remote video session.  We were almost marked as absent, but I chimed in and stated that I was on the call, and that my attorney would hopefully be joining shortly.  Embarrassing.

The Judge called our case to be heard, but opposing counsel wished to contact Bruce, so instead of having our case heard right away, our hearing was delayed by almost 3 hours while Bruce “negotiated” with opposing counsel, which was a horribly frustrating experience because he wouldn’t let me talk directly to the other side, so every line of communication had to go through Bruce, who was distracted trying to attend to two cases simultaneously!  In the end, absolutely nothing was settled in the 3 extra hours, and both sides had to pay additional attorney’s fees, and the case went before the judge. 

During the “negotiations”, Bruce encouraged me to consider taking less than the 50/50 custody which I was requesting.  He said it was very unlikely that I would win 50/50 custody.

Against all the bad advice that Bruce had given me, the judge quickly agreed to give me the 50/50 physical custody that I had been asking for, almost DESPITE Bruce’s efforts, not because of them.  I was pleased with the result, of course, while also being embarrassed by my absent-minded and distracted attorney who did not seem to have my best interests at heart.   All remaining issues, including Support payments, vacation time, and holidays, were deferred because we were out of time already and the other side asked for a 2nd continuance, and the court allowed it, immediately setting a new court date for August 7th, almost exactly 3 months away.

Issue #9 – I believe Bruce mislead me into settling the case, when I firmly believed I was only agreeing to another Continuance as discussed!

On July 24th, I received a proposed stipulation from opposing counsel.  I immediately told Bruce that I did not agree to their terms, and that I would respond directly to my ex wife in private, without attorneys, to see if we could come to some agreement on the 12 or so remaining issues prior to court.  I told Bruce that I would run any potential agreement past him before making anything official, but I did not want to waste billable hours having him serve as a go-between, seeing how poorly that went during our previous negotiations on the May 8th court date.

Between July 25th and July 29th, my ex wife and I discussed and agreed upon most of the outstanding issues including 2 more trips with our son per year, getting our son a passport, alternating tax credits, and a new Holiday schedule (which Bruce told me “doesn’t matter”, but it did matter a lot to me).  The only issues we did not agree on prior to the upcoming continued court date were Child Support and related financial matters, which I told Bruce I still wanted to bring before the court as soon as possible.

Bruce was kept in the loop regarding the Settlement discussion beginning July 30th.

On August 2nd (5 days before court), counsel for the other side told Bruce that they would be requesting another continuance.  I told Bruce that I would not agree to giving them a 3rd continuance unless they agreed formally to the 12 or so issues we had already agreed upon informally via email, prior to the next court date.  Otherwise, I wanted to simply bring all issues before the judge.

On that same day, August 2nd, I emailed Bruce a very clear and detailed list of the 12 topics we agreed upon, and the 3 topics that we did not agree upon.  I clearly said in my email “If we both sign by Monday, then we can agree to the continuance with the scope of the ongoing litigation limited to Child Support, Sharing of Financial Documents Annually, and Legal Expenses.”  Bruce and I also had a redundant phone call on this date, making the same point, so he was extremely clear that I was only willing to agree to continue the financial topics.  I fully expected a new court date to be assigned immediately.

On August 5th, opposing counsel emailed Bruce stating “Rebekah would be agreeable to setting support at zero without prejudice pending the next hearing.”  Clearly, they understood that any settlement would involve a continuance of the financial topic.

On the same date, I emailed Bruce again “It’s my expectation that you guys will send me a draft with the first 12 points listed out, and if both sides sign it today, we will agree to grant the other side’s continuance request, with support set temporarily at $0 pending the next court date.”  Bruce responded the same day stating “We are working on it now and opposing counsel confirmed that child support would be set at zero pending the next date.”, so he was very clearly aware that the zero support clause was temporary, pending the next court date.

At 5pm on August 5th I received the first draft of the stipulation.  I had to make several edits because there were careless mistakes made, such as inverting odd and even years for the custody schedule, differing from what I had emailed to Bruce days before.  Crucially, the draft from Bruce included a clause which we had not discussed or agreed upon, which stated “The parties stipulate and agree that child support shall be set at zero, retroactive to the filing date of the RFO, which was December 20, 2023.”.  I changed this clause to “The parties stipulate and agree that child support shall be set at zero, effective immediately, until the case is further settled or receives a judgement.” This was another instance of me clearly acting upon the understanding that a 3rd continuance would mean we would immediately be assigned a new court date, as had happened the 2 previous times continuances we granted.  I also emailed Bruce 2 more times that same day, reiterating that the financial issue was not resolved and needed to go before a judge, the “zero child support” agreement was temporary until the next court date. I felt that Child Support should be awarded in my favor, since my ex was earning drastically more money than I was, and yet I had been paying her. 

 On August 6th, the day before our scheduled court appearance, there was another mad scramble trying to get the stipulation document signed.  It was finally signed around 3:30pm, which included the text “until the case is further settled or receives a judgement”, and I was told by my counsel that there would be no court hearing the next morning.  Bruce said “Everything is resolved for now”.  Why would he say “for now” unless he wanted me to believe that the case was being continued, when really it was being settled, without my knowledge?

3 days later, on August 9th, I emailed Bruce asking, “when is the next court date for my case?”, as I clearly expected to have a new date assigned immediately, since we were supposed to only agree to the continuance on the 3 remaining financial issues. 

The response I received 3 days later on August 12th was absolutely stunning!  Bruce’s staff emailed me “Since the case settled all issues pertaining to the RFO, there are no future hearings on calendar.  Should either party wish to modify the child support order in the future, you may file another Stipulation and Order if you are able to reach an agreement.  If no agreement is reached, a Request for Order may be filed.” 

I was absolutely stunned and felt like my own attorney had tricked me into a full settlement when he clearly knew based on no less than 5 different email references that I had only agreed to a continuance of the 3 remaining issues, including Child Support!   It felt like a trap to make me pay more fees to file a brand new RFO.

I immediately emailed back, asking Bruce to call me.  I called Bruce’s cell phone and office phone, and texted his cell phone, stating how upset I was that we did not have a new court date and that I was now being told I would have to start over with a new RFO.  I asked him to call me, but he never did!

Issue #10 – Bruce improperly withdrew from my ongoing case, then stated he was still going to charge me as a client for ongoing emails related to his mistake(s).

On August 13th at 9:28am, Bruce emailed “Since we have completed our representation of you, I will be filing a Notice of Withdrawal of Attorney of Record.  At that point, you will be representing yourself.”

Later that evening around 6:20pm, after I asked Bruce if there was any way to undo or “stay” the order since it was clearly a mistake, Bruce emailed me and said “no mistakes were made” and “please understand that you are being charged for the email exchange.”, which seems like a pretty clear ethics violation to me, quitting as my attorney with issues still unresolved in court, and then trying to keep billing.  Bruce then said “This will be my last email to you”. It wasn’t.

Issue #11 – Bruce failed to enter a complete Order After Hearing! Delayed for almost 4 months. Charged me anyway.

On May 8th, 2024, during our court appearance, the judge told Bruce to write up the orders that she had given for 50/50 physical custody of my son.  I had to remind Bruce multiple times to write up this order, but he still had not written it up almost four months later!

I finally received a draft of a stipulation for the 50/50 custody order on August 20th, but it was deeply flawed and had large gaps in custodial coverage every week, which I brought to Bruce’s attention immediately, and his assistant agreed, but Bruce refused to fix the major issue of coverage, and simply told me that he had withdrawn as my attorney of record, even though this issue was clearly still pending and he was still my counsel!  I was forced to work directly with opposing counsel to resolve the gaps in custodial coverage, without an attorney representing me.  Opposing counsel was able to rework the language to properly cover the gaps very quickly, yet Bruce still billed me about $400 for his worthlessly flawed draft of the Judge’s orders.

Issue #12 – Bruce did not cc me on emails between his office and opposing counsel, and he did not properly forward documents to me from opposing counsel, even when asked.

The documents filed with the court by opposing counsel on August 6th were not sent to me.  I even specifically requested these documents from Bruce and his staff on August 13th, but he and his team continued to delay sending me the documents I was entitled to.  Instead, Bruce said “You were also copied on all emails with opposing counsel relevant to your case, so you already have them.  As far as the document you are requesting, is that the Request to Reschedule the Hearing that opposing counsel filed right before the hearing?  If it is, you can email Nia at the office to get a copy.”.  These statements within the same email contradict each other because IF I had been copied on all communication with opposing counsel, I would not need to “email Nia to get a copy”.  Either way, Bruce did not send me all communications between himself and opposing counsel, as I requested on August 13th or August 15th.  At first, I didn’t understand why my counsel was resisting sending me these documents, but later it appeared to me that it was because they were trying to cover up a huge mistake!  See issue #13 below!

Issue #13 – Bruce MISSED ANOTHER DEADLINE and failed to file the updated Income and Expense Declaration the required 16 days before the court hearing, thus giving the other side the opportunity to demand a continuance, then he appeared to try to cover up the mistake.

Opposing counsel filed form FL-306 on 8/6/2024 asking to reschedule the hearing which at that time was scheduled for the next day, 8/7/2024, citing the reason as “Respondent’s updated Income and Expense declaration was not served 16 court days before hearing when there were material changes to his income.  More time is needed for forensic accountant to do cash flow for Respondent.” 

On July 22nd  I was told by my counsel’s paralegal that I needed to update my FL-150 by 7/24/2024, which I successfully did, with only 2 days advanced notice.  I was never told by my counsel that this form actually needed to be completed nearly 3 weeks earlier, they completely dropped the ball on that calendar item, which lead to the disastrous “settlement” instead of “continuance” issue #9 listed above. Bruce tried to cover up his mistake by vaguely stating that the other side had a “fairly good reason” to request a continuance and likely receive one, by refusing to send me the other side’s actual FL-306 until it was far too late, after my numerous demands to see all documents. 

Issue #14 – Bruce stated he would withdraw, then stated he would continue acting as my attorney, then abandoned me before a scheduled call with opposing counsel with less than 24 hours notice.

On August 19th, 6 days after he improperly withdrew as my counsel, Bruce emailed me stating “we are still working with opposing counsel on the language that needs to be included in the orders.  I also have a call scheduled with opposing counsel on Wednesday at 1:30. Ms. Mioni  (OC) asked for the call and I am not sure what it is about.  I am willing to finish up getting the orders finished and submitted and I am also willing to take opposing counsel’s call to see what that is about.”

The very next day, on August 20th, I received an email from Bruce’s paralegal stating “Bruce will no longer be going forward with the scheduled phone call with opposing counsel tomorrow.  You may reach out to her directly”, seemingly abandoning me, less than 24 hours before a scheduled negotiation call with opposing counsel.

In Closing

I am absolutely stunned and appalled by Bruce Mandel’s behavior, and I strongly believe that Bruce’s misrepresentation and mistakes caused me significant financial harm.  His representation was far below the standard for attorneys in Los Angeles, and his negligence and mistakes forced me into a situation where I had to choose between starting over with a new attorney, filing a new RFO from a weaker position (since it looked to the court like I had already settled out of court), or negotiating directly with opposing counsel for scraps, to try to get back a smaller portion of the Support I had been forced to over-pay, and also essentially begging them to properly file the order for 50/50 Physical Custody using their own language rather than the flawed version Bruce had created with obvious gaps in custodial coverage.  I didn’t have enough money to realistically start another legal battle, especially considering Bruce charged me almost 3x his original estimate, so I was forced to work directly with opposing counsel to settle for a much worse deal than I deserved after 9 months of fighting for justice.

I would advise anyone looking for a family law attorney in the Torrance area to hire any attorney OTHER than Bruce A. Mandel.

How to help yourself, and others, if you also had a terrible experience with Bruce A. Mandel:

Los Angeles County Bar Association

Fee Arbitration Program Administrator
Los Angeles County Bar Association
P.O. Box 55020
Los Angeles, CA 90055-0020
Phone: 213-896-6426
Email: acmas@lacba.org
Mediation and Arbitration Services

Filing Fee
$50 plus 5 percent of amount in dispute when total amount in dispute is less than $10,000.
6 percent of amount in dispute when total amount in dispute is $10,000 or more but less than $20,000.
7 percent of amount in dispute when total amount in dispute is $20,000 or more with a maximum fee of $7,500.

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