Glendale-based Davtyan Law Firm has bought the Law Offices of Kevin T. Barnes, positioning itself to begin litigating the employment class-action lawsuits it has spent years partnering with outside counsel to take to trial.

The transaction adds a second physical office for Davtyan Law, which opened in 2015 and recently moved to a new main office in downtown Glendale. It added the Barnes firm, which was based in West Los Angeles, in January after its namesake founder relocated to Georgia to wrap up his existing cases and transition to mediation. This lined up nicely with founder Emil Davtyan’s hope to start arguing cases in house after conducting all of the research.

“His staff members have been with him for a really long time and he was genuinely interested in finding a new home for them,” Davtyan said. “In recent months and years, we’ve been grappling with the idea that we should be way more involved in the actual litigation of these wages and hour class actions, so we thought this was the perfect opportunity for us to do that. The stars were aligned for us. The timing was right. Everyone in his firm was super excited.”

Kevin Barnes, a former deputy district attorney, built a career in employment law specialized in private attorneys general act, or PAGA, cases, in which employees file civil suits on behalf of themselves and their peers.

“I’ve had an amazing career protecting Californians, and the time has come for me to work my current cases to their conclusion and then...

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