Humanity, Habitability, and Heart: How Eric Castelblanco Battles Slumlords for Million-Dollar Verdicts

Eric Castelblanco was helping a client navigate the immigration system when she told him about her neighbor’s slip-and-fall in their apartment building. Would he help her? Of course he would. Not only did he secure a $250,000 settlement for that client, he later took a case for 92 residents who lived in squalor at the same building. The $2.14 million settlement compelled him to switch from immigration law to habitability law. In this conversation with host Dan Ambrose, Eric reflects on how he built one of California's leading habitability practices from scratch and how he keeps the firm driven to prepare every case as if it’s going to trial.

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2026 Programming

☑️ TLU Beach, June 3-6, Huntington Beach, CA

Episode Snapshot

• Eric immigrated to the U.S. as a toddler; his family lived in nine different apartments over 12 years, giving him a firsthand understanding of what it means to be a powerless tenant.
• His father worked in factories and car washes before opening a small machine shop. Working for his father from age 13 "really taught me the work ethic,” he says.
• Eric attended Loyola Marymount University, passed the CPA exam on his first try, worked two years at KPMG, and then enrolled at Harvard Law School.
• After five years in corporate law, Eric left because he felt a greater kinship with the plaintiffs’ lawyers he watched in depositions.
• Eric's first habitability case came through an immigration client who referred him to his neighbor, who was injured from a slip-and-fall at their apartment building. That led to a $250,000 settlement..
• When Eric's immigration client visited his new office to pay rent, he learned that the same management company owned her residential building — where 92 tenants lived in squalor. He mortgaged his house multiple times to fund their case and nearly went bankrupt before a $2.14 million settlement on the eve of jury selection.
• Castelblanco Law Group now operates with six attorneys and over 20 staff under the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), which Eric credits with transforming how he holds his team accountable and maintains a long-term vision for the firm.
• At TLU Beach, Eric will teach a lecture and workshop on how to identify, build, value, and try habitability cases.

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