Haytham Faraj

Haytham Faraj is a trial lawyer with more than 80 jury trials. He has tried to verdict over 50 criminal jury trials and more than 25 civil jury trials. He has tried cases in federal, state and military courts. He is licensed in California, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa and DC and has tried cases in all of those locations.

Haytham began his legal career as a military lawyer, a judge advocate. His military legal career culminated 22 years of military service, 19 of which were in the combat arms.

Following retirement Haytham focused primarily on criminal defense work. He represented clients in high profile cases including an espionage case that alleged his client spied for Saddam Hussein’s government and a military arms sale case that alleged his clients were attempting to illegally sell weapons to foreign organizations. Haytham won acquittals in both federal trials. Haytham also represented and acquitted the Marine Corps Staff Sergeant who was accused of masterminding the Haditha massacre in a war crimes case that gained worldwide attention, including a cover on Time magazine and a 60 Minutes show, and that led the government of Iraq to withdraw from the Statue of Forces Agreement (SOFA) which ultimately forced the U.S. to withdraw its forces from Iraq in 2011-2. The story of the Haditha murders and trial has been captured in the book Haytham authored titled “No Time For The Truth,” in the documentary film “House 2” and the in the podcast “Murder in House 2.”

In another war crimes case that gained national attention, Haytham represented a Marine accused of conspiracy and murder in the trial that came to be known as the Pendleton 8. Haytham won an acquittal for his client Trent Thomas based on a TBI and PTSD defense. The use of TBI as a defense in a murder trial was the first of its kind.

In 2014 Haytham transitioned his practice to represent clients in civil rights and injury cases. Since then he has tried more than 25 jury trials and obtained extraordinary verdicts including a 26 million in a TBI case, 5.7 million in an eye injury case, and most recently in late 2019, 13 million in a premises wrongful death case. Even though he transitioned to doing civil cases, Haytham continues to try high stakes criminal cases. His most recent federal criminal case was on behalf of a Wyoming healthcare provider who was accused of 26 counts of overprescribing opiates, including two death counts, in a federal indictment. Haytham maneuvered the case into a position where the U.S. Attorney was forced to drop all but one count. At sentencing, the AUSA asked for three years. Haytham’s day long sentencing presentation sought to persuade the judge that supervised release is appropriate. The judge agreed.

Haytham attributes his successes in the courtroom to the skills developed by Gerry Spence and to the power of psychodrama. Haytham prioritizes time for his family and three kids. His free time is spent engaging in outdoor activities like cycling, running and hiking. His passions include issues of social justice and human right and ways to address both.