What Haytham Faraj learned while working on one of the nation's biggest war crimes trials

Los Angeles trial lawyer Haytham Faraj built a personal injury practice on the U.S. Marine Corps values of honor, courage, and commitment -- principles forged during his two decades of service that included some of the most challenging chapters in recent U.S. military history.

Faraj's story began in Chicago, where his family settled after immigrating from Lebanon when he was 12. "I was 16 years old and a fairly new immigrant," he recalled. "I knew we couldn't afford college; they didn't have that kind of money. My best friend at the time wanted to be a Marine and had no interest in going to college, so I went with him to the recruiting station."

The recruiters did their job well. "I decided I wanted to enlist as well. I went back home and talked to my parents. Initially they were reluctant, but I kept nagging and they changed their minds. The rest was history."

At 17, he entered boot camp through the Quality Enlistment Program, which allowed high-scoring recruits to choose their specialty. "I wasn't that smart, so I chose infantry," he laughed.

After Operation Desert Storm, Faraj's Marine Corps career accelerated. "I got promoted quickly. I was recommended for a combat promotion to staff sergeant when I was about three and a half years in," he explained. Officers urged him to become one of them. Through the Marine Enlisted Commissioning Education Program, Faraj earned his commission while attending college on active duty.

Years later, as an operations officer for a special operations unit, Faraj began thinking about his next chapter.

"I didn't know I wanted to become an attorney until much later," he said. When told his path to another command would take nearly a decade, he explored the Marine Corps' advanced education options. "I applied for the law program thinking at least I'd have something when I retired."

Law school became his new mission. "In my 19th year I graduated, passed the bar, attended the Naval Justice School in Rhode Island, and came back to Camp Pendleton to be the senior defense counsel."

Despite being a newly minted lawyer, "I was in charge of seven lawyers defending Marines," he noted.

Military service, Faraj said, provided the foundation for his legal success. "My time in the Corps was huge in shaping who I am and what kind of attorney I became. Even though I was brand new as a lawyer, I was probably the most skilled defense lawyer there because I understood the commands, where decisions are made, and how to negotiate with executive officers, sergeants major, and eventually battalion and regimental commanders -- the people who bring charges."

Leadership, strategy, and persuasion -- skills honed in uniform -- translated seamlessly to the courtroom. "Sitting down and working through a case is no different to me than studying intel, developing a plan, and figuring out how to execute the mission," he said.

Faraj called his approach "warfare for lawyers." "Somewhere, someplace, someone is waking up trying to mess up your case. It's not unlike the military, where you have an adversary thinking about how to outmaneuver you. That constant tension of trying to solve problems and be creative allowed for an easier transition to the legal profession."

That transition came amid one of the most closely watched military prosecutions of the Iraq War. Faraj represented Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, the lead defendant in the Haditha case involving the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in 2005.

The incident occurred after a roadside bomb detonated under a Marine convoy, killing Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas and wounding two others. In the aftermath, Marines from Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines conducted a raid that resulted in the deaths of men, women, and children in nearby homes. Initial reports claimed the civilians were killed by the roadside bomb or in a firefight with insurgents, but subsequent evidence -- including photographs and survivor testimony -- showed that most victims were shot at close range inside their houses.

"The case was still ongoing in 2008. He had a civilian lawyer, and I was the military lawyer. He asked me to stay on, so he ended up hiring me," Faraj recalled.

Wuterich ultimately pleaded guilty to a single count of negligent dereliction of duty and was demoted in rank, avoiding prison time. For Faraj, it was both a test of skill and a bridge to civilian practice. "I was still working on the biggest case of my life -- frankly, I think it's the biggest case since My Lai, maybe bigger, with all the attention it got."

The My Lai massacre was the mass killing of unarmed South Vietnamese civilians by U.S. Army soldiers on March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War. Troops from Company C, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, entered the hamlet of My Lai in Quang Ngai Province expecting to find Viet Cong fighters but instead killed between 347 and 504 villagers -- mostly women, children, and elderly men. Soldiers shot civilians execution-style, assaulted women, and burned homes until Army helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson Jr. intervened, threatening to fire on his fellow Americans to stop the slaughter.

The Army initially covered up the massacre, but journalist Seymour Hersh exposed it in 1969, sparking global outrage and intensifying U.S. opposition to the war. Of 26 soldiers charged, only Lt. William Calley Jr. was convicted; though sentenced to life, he served just three and a half years under house arrest after President Richard M. Nixon intervened. The massacre became a lasting symbol of the Vietnam War's moral failures and the human cost of unchecked military power.

Four years after retiring from the Marine Corps, in his 22nd year of service, Faraj founded the Law Offices of Haytham Faraj initially in Chicago focusing on federal criminal defense, in 2013 he passed the California Bar and began to transition to a civil practice. In 2015, he moved to Los Angeles and opened an office.

His firm focuses on personal injury, civil rights, and police misconduct cases - achieving verdicts in the tens of millions of dollars. He still occasionally represents service members in court martial proceedings, most recently a Navy Seal accused of a war crime. Faraj's representation resulted in dismissal of the charges.

Faraj also makes a point of hiring veterans. Veterans possess character traits developed in the crucible of rigorous training that makes them easier to train and to work with, he believes.

Even after decades in civilian life, Faraj said his military identity defines his approach to law. "Most people still see me and identify me as the Marine, not the lawyer, because of the way I carry myself. I'm proud of that."

And he said he sees the law as a natural extension of his oath of service. "If military service is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, then the legal profession is the manifestation of that duty on the home front and in the courtroom protecting ordinary people's rights and holding corporations and government accountable."