Ray Aghaian is a partner on the Privacy and Digital Risk Class Action and Litigation team with vast experience litigating complex civil data privacy and cybersecurity matters. As a trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor, clients also rely on him to oversee internal corporate investigations, the defense of complex criminal grand jury investigations and any resulting post-indictment criminal charges. In addition, Ray has served as a go-to attorney when clients require counsel on issues regarding the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the CLOUD Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Ray defends clients in matters involving bet-the-company civil litigation, criminal white-collar defense and corporate internal investigations relating to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the False Claims Act, the Lacey Act, U.S. Food and Drug Administration violations, export control violations and U.S. trade sanctions, among others. Based on his lead trial experience in complex litigation and disputes, Ray has first chaired the successful defense of clients in matters involving data breaches, fraud and breach of fiduciary duty, violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the California Automatic Renewal Law and California Consumer Legal Remedies Act, federal securities fraud, violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Electronic Communications Privacy Act and theft of trade secrets. Further, Ray also advocated before senior officials at the White House. One of Ray's data privacy battles with the Justice Department was featured in hundreds of news outlets, including the editorial section of the New York Times.
This combined experience and know-how earned him the prestigious CLAY Award from the Daily Journal and “Cybersecurity & Data Privacy Trailblazer” recognition from the National Law Journal. Ray was named one of the “Most Influential Minority Lawyers” and one of the “Most Influential Lawyers in White Collar & Cyber Crimes Law” by the Los Angeles Business Journal, has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America® and Southern California Super Lawyers for defending clients in white-collar matters, and was prominently ranked by The Legal 500 in the area of trade secrets.
Ray previously spent seven years as a federal prosecutor with the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, where he helped prosecute numerous white-collar criminal offenses, including cyber intrusions, Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, bribery, copyright and patent infringement, healthcare fraud, mortgage/bank fraud, tax evasion, money laundering and mail/wire fraud. During his tenure, he was nominated for the prestigious Attorney General’s Award, the highest award in the Department of Justice; received special recognition by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III; and received awards from federal law enforcement agencies like the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Department of Labor.
Ray has participated in numerous panels and seminars over the years, has been quoted in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Los Angeles Times and was the subject of a 2019 Law360 article titled “Why I Became a Lawyer: A Refugee's Journey of Firsts.”