Khanna, Nitasha

Rafael Contreras Sweet earned his Juris Doctor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. While earning his degree, Rafael served as a judicial extern to the Honorable Harry Pregerson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He also was a founding member of the Real Estate Law Society. Rafael earned his bachelor's degree in Political Science with an emphasis in International Relations from the University of California at Los Angeles in 2003.

In 2011, Rafael was featured in Latino Leaders Magazine as one of Los Angeles' Leaders of the Future. He was also chosen to participate in the Southern California Leadership Network's leadership development program to develop a productive network of exemplary and diverse leaders in the business, government and community sectors who are capable of addressing the critical challenges facing the Southern California region. Rafael was also involved in the creation of ProAmerica Bank, the first Latino-formed business bank to debut in downtown Los Angeles in the past 30 years.

Prior to joining Pettit Kohn, Rafael represented clients in a variety of business litigation matters, including employment related disputes, premises liability, toxic tort, intellectual property, transportation and business transactions. Although his primary focus is retail litigation matters, Rafael has a wide range of civil litigation experience and routinely achieves favorable results for his clients.