Sasha Lazarevich

Deputy City Attorney Sasha Lazarevich has prosecuted all intellectual property (‘IP’) criminal matters for the Intellectual Property Prosecution Section (‘IPPS’) of the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office since 2015. As the first prosecutor hired into this specialized position, Lazarevich built out a criminal prosecution program from the ground up. This includes developing prosecution best practices, which have led to notable results such as a 98% conviction rate and financial restitution to victims ordered in every case resulting in a conviction.
 
To date, Lazarevich has reviewed and prosecuted hundreds of IP criminal matters. She handles all stages of proceedings, including jury trials, and sets litigation priorities for the criminal part of her section. Ms. Lazarevich’s cases involve IP violations arising in numerous industries including technology, pharmaceuticals, fashion, personal care, and entertainment.

As a result of the overwhelming success of her enforcement efforts, Lazarevich spends significant time presenting IP prosecution best practices to law enforcement and industry representatives. Thus far, she has provided training to over 2000 law enforcement officers from over 36 state, local, and federal agencies as well as dozens of brand owners from across the United States. Lazarevich has also conducted trainings for over 100 prosecutors from California and beyond.  She has also travelled internationally to speak to foreign law enforcement and legal professionals about best practices for IP crimes prosecutions. 

More recently, the focus of Lazarevich’s work has turned to the sale of counterfeit and illegal pharmaceuticals including fake Xanax and Viagra, which can cause serious injury and death. She is also working on an initiative to improve enforcement of cybercrimes with an IP component especially in regards to criminal activity occurring on the dark web.
 
Prior to her work as an IP crimes prosecutor, DCA Lazarevich worked on routine criminal matters including driving under the influence cases and violent offenses. She is also a former Googler. Ms. Lazarevich received her J.D. from University of Washington and her B.A. in political science from Columbia University.