Niloufar Shahbandi

Background

Niloufar is a 2023 graduate of the University of California, San Diego, where she earned two undergraduate degrees in parallel — a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and a Bachelor of Science in Cognitive Science. The pairing is unusual. Communications taught her to read what people are actually saying: how an argument is structured, how a document frames a position, how a phone call lands when someone is upset. Cognitive Science gave her the analytical side: how decisions get made under pressure, how memory and attention behave, what shifts when a person is in pain or under stress. Both translate directly into the work at a personal injury firm, where the record is built on documents, recorded statements, medical files, and witness recollection.

Research and writing background

Before joining Etehad Law, Niloufar worked as a research assistant on a project examining surveillance technology — the systems that observe, record, and analyze human behavior in public spaces and online. The work was technical and policy-adjacent and required sustained attention to source material. Those habits transfer directly into legal case workup, where the difference between a documented fact and an assumption can change how a claim is positioned.

She also wrote for two student publications at UCSD. At Triton Magazine she covered campus culture and student life. At The UCSD Guardian, the university’s independent student newspaper, she worked as a news editor. Editing is closer to paralegal work than people expect. You read drafts that aren’t ready, find the gaps, ask the questions the writer hasn’t answered, and push it back for another pass. The same posture works inside a case file — the inconsistencies caught early are usually the ones that would otherwise cause problems weeks or months down the line.

What the work looks like

Personal injury cases move on documentation. A treating physician’s notes from week three of recovery sometimes matter more than the complaint that opened the case. An emergency room bill paid out of pocket affects damages differently than one billed through insurance. The order in which events happened, who was contacted and when, what statements were given to which adjuster — all of it gets organized by paralegals before it ever reaches a deposition, a settlement conference, or a courtroom.

Niloufar handles the work that lives in that layer: organizing intake materials, requesting and tracking medical records, building case chronologies an attorney can read at a glance, drafting routine correspondence for attorney review, coordinating with treating providers and insurance representatives on administrative items, and keeping clients informed at each step so they aren’t left wondering between updates. She does not interpret the law or set case strategy. Her job is to make sure the file is ready when an attorney needs it.

Outside the firm

Strength training, three or four mornings a week. Niloufar is also a methodical explorer of coffee shops and independent bookstores around Los Angeles. A good Saturday is usually a long one — a neighborhood she hasn’t worked through, a bookstore she hasn’t been to, a coffee shop that takes its menu seriously. She is slowly working through the list.