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By Brian Hews
Publisher | Follow X
May 7, 2026
LA PALMA — Three weeks ago, Los Cerritos Community News exclusively reported that the one square mile City of La Palma with an annual budget of $13 million had been hit with an $8.2 million harassment lawsuit, putting the small Orange County city under an uncomfortable spotlight.
Just one week later, LCCN reported about a second lawsuit—this time alleging wage theft and labor violations inside the City’s Tiny Tots recreation program. The complaint claims employees were routinely required to work full days while being paid for only part-time hours.
Now, another major headache has gripped the city—this time involving La Palma Mayor Nitesh P. Patel and a law school that shut down after a lawsuit and a damning State Bar report.
Patel ran the American International School of Law, an unaccredited, for-profit correspondence law school based in Irvine.
Court records show that Patel and the school were named in a 2018 lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court alleging intentional misrepresentation related to the school’s academic program and services.
The complaint accused the school of making false representations to prospective students regarding instruction, academic support, and bar preparation resources.
The case was dismissed with prejudice in November 2018, meaning it cannot be refiled. No details about any settlement or agreement have been made public.
Five years later, in 2023, a State Bar of California inspection report raised significant concerns about the school’s operations, questioning whether it provided a “sound education” and identifying potential noncompliance with rules governing unaccredited law schools.
Shortly after the State Bar issued its warning, the American International School of Law moved to voluntarily terminate its registration, closing its doors effective November 15, 2023.
In response to questions from Los Cerritos Community News, Patel defended the school’s record and attributed its closure to “regulatory changes.”
“American International School of Law has a longstanding record of helping numerous students prepare for and successfully pass the bar exam,” Patel said. “Generally, law schools, both accredited and unaccredited, have faced high attrition rates. In 2022, the school made the difficult decision to wind down operations due to the State Bar’s changes to requirements for unaccredited law schools, well ahead of the 2023 inspection. In regards to the case in 2018 it was dismissed with prejudice.”
Patel did not elaborate on the allegations raised in the 2018 lawsuit or the circumstances surrounding its dismissal.
The State Bar’s 2023 inspection report, however, paints a far more troubling picture. Investigators concluded that the American International School of Law “does not appear to provide the sound education required,” raising serious concerns about whether students were being properly prepared to become attorneys.
More than 70 percent of students left after their first year. In one example cited, 22 students began the program, but only five continued into the second year. Since 2019, dozens enrolled, but only a small number reached the final year.
The report also found that the school lacked a structured academic program. Instead of traditional instruction, many courses were little more than lists of books and materials students were required to purchase on their own. Much of the learning came from outside bar preparation courses, meaning students were largely teaching themselves.
Academic support was minimal. The school had no formal support system, and student interaction with faculty was limited. In many cases, students were told they could contact the school’s president directly by text message, but the report noted that such communication was rare and not a substitute for consistent instruction.
Testing practices raised additional concerns. Midterm exams were not proctored, and some exams were based on publicly available bar exam questions, where answers could be easily found online. The State Bar noted that the school could not reliably verify whether the work submitted was actually completed by the students.
The report also found that the school failed to correct issues identified in a prior inspection. Despite being directed to improve its program, the school was unable to demonstrate meaningful changes. State Bar officials warned the school could face probation or termination if deficiencies were not addressed.
Instead of fixing those problems, the school shut down—what Patel attributed to “regulatory changes”—leaving behind a lawsuit, a State Bar warning, and unanswered questions now tied to a sitting mayor.
Interesting to note, both the sttlement and the wage-claim lawsuit and the growing public criticism happened while Conal McNamara and his administrative team were in charge. McNamara is now the City Manager in Whittier.
During his tenure, residents raised concerns at council meetings about how City Hall handled employee complaints, particularly within the Tiny Tots program—issues now central to the wage theft lawsuit.
McNamara was hired in 2020 to bring stability to La Palma. Instead, during his tenure, the city now faces multiple lawsuits, internal criticism, and a wave of departures.
For a one-square-mile city with a $13 million budget, the pattern is not subtle.
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