Our Practice

• Business Litigation
• Wage & Hour Defense
• Real Estate & Licensing Litigation
• Writs & Appeals

 Mr. Augustini specializes in representing both companies and individuals in business and commercial litigation matters, with a focus on contract disputes, unfair competition, trade secret misappropriation and associated business torts, and employment litigation (specifically wage and hour class action defense on behalf of employers).  He has successfully defended clients in both federal and state wage and hour and employment cases, including wage and hour class actions, FLSA collective actions and large multi-party overtime cases (consisting of 20+ plaintiffs). He also has represented numerous employers before the California Labor Commission/DLSE.  He has extensive litigation experience in both federal and state court, has handled numerous bench and jury trials to judgment as well as arbitration matters to a final award, and has successfully represented clients in both writ and appellate matters.

In addition, over the past decade Mr. Augustini has developed extensive experience representing cannabis businesses throughout California in licensing matters, enforcement matters, real-estate related disputes, and constitutional/legal challenges to cannabis-related statutes, regulations and agency procedures.  For instance, he has represented unsuccessful cannabis applicants in mandamus actions challenging application City procedures/determinations; cannabis clients in disputes over leases and real estate purchase agreements; disputes over the purchase and sale of dispensaries; and municipal and state governmental enforcement actions.  

Most recently, Mr. Augustini initiated or has been directly involved in actions challenging the constitutionality/legality/enforceability of municipal development agreements imposed on cannabis licensees, emergency and permanent CDTFA regulations enacted to impose cannabis excise taxes on cannabis accessories, CDTFA regulations imposing a 50% penalty on all missed tax payments, the CDTFA's nominee state tax lien procedures, the DCC's recall procedures for adulterated products as well as its testing protocols for Aspergillus, the CDTFA's procedures for issuing jeopardy determinations, and in 2025 he obtained a trial court judgment that the DCC had failed to comply with mandatory requirements for its track-and-trace system.  These legal actions, both individually and collectively, have the potential to significantly benefit the legal cannabis industry writ large in California by substantially reducing illicit market diversion and inversion, while also drastically reducing the ability of government agencies to misuse or blatantly exceed their powers and authority to abuse, punish and intimidate legal operators.          

Mr. Augustini has received an AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rating from Martindale Hubbell®, the country’s preeminent lawyer rating service.  This rating signifies a lawyer has achieved the highest levels of professional skill and integrity, and that a lawyer’s peers have ranked him or her at the highest level of professional excellence.  Mr. Augustini also has been named as a “Legal Leader” and a top rated litigation attorney in the Southern California area, repeatedly has been selected as a Southern California "Super Lawyer" in civil litigation matters, and recently was also named a Super Lawyer in the cannabis field -- an honor restricted to the top 5% of all practicing attorneys.   

Prior to forming his own law office, Mr. Augustini was a name partner in two boutique Orange County, California litigation firms -- Gordee, Nowicki & Augustini LLP (2010-2014) and Finlayson, Augustini & Williams LLP (2005-2009).  Before that, Mr. Augustini spent nine years as a complex business litigator in the Orange County office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. 

Mr. Augustini graduated cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1995, where he served as an Articles Editor for the Georgetown Journal of Law and Policy in International Business.  Prior to attending law school, Mr. Augustini graduated cum laude from the University of California at Los Angeles, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History.  

Mr. Augustini is a member of the State Bar of California and is admitted to practice in all courts in the State of California, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States District Courts for the Central, Southern, Northern and Eastern Districts of California.  He also is a member of the Orange County Bar Association.