We Are Celebrating Our Third Anniversary!

To celebrate our third anniversary, we offer milestones from the past few years and some details about Mestaz Law that you may not know.

Who is Mestaz Law?

AV-rated, and recently recognized both by Best Lawyers and Super Lawyers, Daniel Mestaz founded Mestaz Law in September 2021. He has been litigating for 28 years, though not always in the valley. After 9 years in Los Angeles at blue-chip law firms in document-heavy commercial litigation, he left a prestigious partnership for more jury trial experience in Arizona.

He tried serious felony cases for several years before returning to commercial litigation and opening his own practice. Daniel’s typical clients come to him for legal assistance with must-win situations, such as contract or business ownership disputes, business torts, trade secrets, non-compete / non-solicitation agreements, and unfair competition.

Committed to providing his clients with the very best representation possible, Daniel knew he could accomplish that more effectively by creating his own firm centered on his two greatest assets – his David v. Goliath approach and The Chron. These two unique features of Mestaz Law set it apart.

The Chron is a proprietary, custom technology used by Daniel. It allows the firm to present compelling visual evidence through a rigorously organized approach to evidence mastery. This relates to the firm’s commitment to preparedness for trial, from the get. In this way, whether or not a trial becomes necessary, Daniel is armed with a master knowledge of case details, ready to present, argue, and win. He routinely prevails, including against the biggest firms in Arizona.

Daniel has a sophisticated outlook on the underlying purposes of litigation, as well as the client’s return on investment. In commercial litigation, it can be easy to default or backslide into chest pounding aggression. Daniel understands litigation is a human experience, and our clients are business people. Sometimes a win requires more aggressive litigation, and sometimes it is something more nuanced, nonreactive, and strategic. Daniel’s personal yoga practice and his weekly yoga teaching keep him grounded and able to connect and reflect with a clear perspective to read the needs of each case. His intentionality allows him a novel empathetic evaluation of the players, their motivations, and positions – which often leads to superior business resolutions rather than scorched earth litigation.

Due to the firm’s growth and a desire to expand the expertise offered to clients, the firm brought in Matthew Hersh as counsel in June 2022. Matt is a skilled litigator with extensive experience representing copyright owners, telecommunications companies, and other corporate entities. Matt’s copyright practice involves nearly a decade working on behalf of record companies and artists with one of the nation’s premiere intellectual property litigation firms. He has also developed a substantial appellate litigation practice over his career, briefing constitutional issues in the U.S. Supreme Court and a wide range of federal circuit courts and state courts. Matt also writes a daily column on copyright for Intellectual Property Law Daily, a trade journal put out by legal publisher Wolters Kluwer. He is a leader in disseminating information about intellectual property cases in Arizona, having written and published the latest news on about a dozen cases with each and every update released.

As Mestaz Law continued to grow and caseloads increased, we welcomed Jamie Bonnell, Litigation Paralegal, to the team in October 2023. In addition to having been a licensed private investigator since December 2017, she also has almost a decade of experience as an educator. Her experience in the complex litigation work of all phases of a trial is extensive and invaluable. Recognizing the diversity of clients in the region, the firm now offers access to bilingual staff, including but not limited to Ms. Bonnell.

In April 2024, Daniel Mestaz was selected to the exclusive 2024 Arizona Super Lawyers List. The list recognizes no more than 5% of lawyers in the state, and is part of Thomson Reuters. To be eligible for the list, each accepted lawyer must have attained a high degree of peer recognition and personal achievement, both rated by research and by their peers.

In September 2024, Daniel was selected by his peers for inclusion in the 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® for Commercial Litigation. Only the top 6% of lawyers are recognized in Best Lawyers nationwide. This accolade complements the others bestowed upon him.

Thank you to everyone who has made the past 3 years of success and growth possible. We look forward to continuing to provide the best legal representation to business owners and executives who have been wronged, bullied, or sued. For more information about Mestaz Law, please visit our website, and follow us on social media (LinkedIn, YouTube, and X).

Did a Celebrity Tattoo Artist Cross the Line

Mestaz Law was proud to collaborate with the George Mason University – Antonin Scalia Law School Arts & Entertainment Advocacy Clinic in filing an amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit in the case of Sedlik v. Drachenberg.

In that case, a Los Angeles jury found that a celebrity tattoo artist did not violate a photographer’s intellectual property rights when she took one of his photographs without permission and made a near-perfect replica of it on a customer’s arm—and then distributed images of both the tattoo and underlying image to her millions of followers on social media.

Mestaz Law represented three tattoo artists who spoke out in support of the photographer on this high-profile appeal. Mestaz Law’s Matthew Hersh served as lead counsel on the brief, accompanied by Professor Sandra Aistars and student advocate Natalie Nachman on behalf of the law clinic.

Mestaz Law is a commercial litigation firm serving businesses, business owners, business executives, and entrepreneurs.