A Lawyer with a Love of Family

Rittu Kumar opened her own law firm to help get back to her roots 

By Shanee Edwards | Photo BY LUIS CHAVEZ

Rittu Kumar was born and raised in Southern California by immigrant parents from India. Coming from a family of engineers and doctors, she was encouraged to follow in her parents’ footsteps. When she was getting her undergraduate degree at USC in business administration, she was required to take a business law class that just so happened to be taught by a female lawyer whom Kumar found deeply inspiring. “I just fell in love with [the law].” So Kumar defied her family’s expectations and went on to attend Loyola Law School.

Kumar initially worked as a litigator for an Orange County law firm but longed to get back to Los Angeles. After a year, she switched to a new firm in LA and made partner after six years. “I was doing trials in both federal and state court and managing a team of attorneys, but eventually I wanted to go out on my own, develop my own clients, and create my own firm. That’s what I did in October of 2017. I created Kumar Law and I’ve been the owner of my own law firm since then,” says Kumar.

Kumar focuses one-half of her business on employment law, business litigation, and contract disputes and negotiations. The other half of her business is estate planning. “When I was in law school, I loved estate planning. Opening my own firm allowed me to take a step back, go back to my roots and do something I always enjoyed,” she says.

Kumar represents a lot of business owners so when the pandemic hit “it was really interesting because I had to help, guide, and consult with them both with the closing of their businesses and when they reopened, to protect their businesses, themselves and their employees that were coming back to work. That was a very interesting ebb and flow with these clients,” Kumar says. 

Because there is so much uncertainty during the pandemic, Kumar’s encouraging people to get their estate plan done, or review and update their existing one. “This pandemic is affecting not only the elderly but everyone,” she cautions.

As a Playa Vista resident since 2007 and the mother of two girls, family is incredibly important to Kumar, who sadly lost her dad in March. To honor him, she is setting up a scholarship fund in his name to help women become engineers through his alma mater. “He was an engineer, he came from India. He was a strong proponent of equality in education amongst women and men. As an engineer, he saw the inequality that women faced in his profession. … He tried to get me to become an engineer but it wasn’t my preference. In his name, I want to make sure that if there are women out there with the desire and the drive, but are financially unable to pursue it, I’d like to be there to help support them,” she says.

Certainly, Kumar’s father would be proud.