By Hydee Feldstein Soto is the current Los Angeles city attorney, the 43rd person to hold the office and the first woman and first Latina ever elected to it. She took office in December 2022 after defeating Faisal Gill in a runoff, and she has spent her term managing one of the largest municipal law offices in the country. Her name shows up often in local news, election coverage, and legal circles across Southern California, and this guide answers the most common questions people search for about her, including her party affiliation, background, endorsements, controversies, and her 2026 reelection bid.
Hydee Feldstein Soto: Quick Facts
- Full name: Hydee Feldstein Soto (also written as Hydee Feldstein-Soto; sometimes misspelled as Heidi Feldstein Soto, Haydee Feldstein Soto, or Hyder Feldstein Soto)
- Title: Los Angeles City Attorney (43rd)
- Born: 1958, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Education: Swarthmore College (bachelor’s degree, 1979); Columbia University School of Law (J.D., 1982)
- Party affiliation: Democratic Party (the office itself is officially nonpartisan)
- Took office: December 12, 2022
- Predecessor: Mike Feuer
Who Is Hydee Feldstein Soto? Background and Early Life
City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where she grew up speaking Spanish at home and English at school. She left Puerto Rico at age 17 to attend Swarthmore College, then earned her law degree from Columbia University School of Law in 1982. After graduating, she moved to Los Angeles, where she has lived for more than four decades.
On the subject of hydee feldstein soto ethnicity, she identifies as Latina and Jewish. Her father was Jewish, and she converted to Judaism as a teenager after studying Torah from the age of 11. She has spoken publicly, including in an interview with the Jewish Journal, about growing up navigating both her Puerto Rican and Jewish identities, and she has described drawing on Jewish values of justice and accountability in both her legal career and her public service. Her election in 2022 made her the first Latina to hold citywide office in Los Angeles and, by some accounts, the first Latina of Jewish heritage to serve as city attorney.
Legal Career Before Public Office
Before entering politics, Feldstein Soto spent more than three decades as a private practice attorney and general counsel, working on large corporate transactions and complex legal matters, often for clients with deals larger than the annual budget of the city of Los Angeles. She has described this experience as direct preparation for running the city attorney’s office on day one. Some online chatter, including a recurring joke tied to her surname, has linked hydee feldstein soto to Citibank. This is internet wordplay built around the phrase “Citi Attorney,” not a documented employment history, and there is no verified record of her having worked at Citibank specifically.
Hydee Feldstein Soto City Attorney Candidacy and the 2022 Election
Feldstein Soto announced her hydee feldstein soto la city attorney candidacy in 2021, entering a crowded primary field. She advanced to a runoff against Faisal Gill and won the general election in November 2022, taking office the following month. Her 2022 campaign secured los angeles city attorney endorsements from the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Daily News, La Opinión, the Los Angeles Sentinel, the Los Angeles City Attorneys Association, Planned Parenthood Advocacy Project, the Sierra Club, and the League of Conservation Voters, along with a range of elected officials, labor unions, and community organizations.
Role and Responsibilities as LA City Attorney
As city attorney, Feldstein Soto serves as the City of Los Angeles’s general counsel and chief legal advisor to the mayor, the city council, and the many city departments, boards, and commissions. Her office employs roughly 1,000 legal professionals, including more than 500 attorneys. The office drafts city ordinances, defends the city in litigation, reviews and signs off on city contracts, and prosecutes misdemeanor crimes within city limits as the city’s chief prosecutor.
Notable Cases, Wins and Settlements
City attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto’s office has pointed to several litigation outcomes as evidence of its enforcement record. Some of the largest include:
– The Nightfall Group lawsuit. In August 2023, Feldstein Soto’s office filed a civil enforcement action against Ultimate Host, LLC, doing business as The Nightfall Group, along with its operator Mokhtar Jabli and several affiliated property owners (Los Angeles Superior Court case No. 23STCV19069). The lawsuit alleged that Nightfall ran a large-scale “party house” operation, leasing homes and then subleasing them as short-term luxury rentals for up to $16,000 a night, in violation of the city’s Short-Term Rental Ordinance, Party House Ordinance, and Rent Stabilization Ordinance. Handled by the office’s Public Rights Branch, the case targeted what the city called “rental arbitrage,” including the use of rent-stabilized units as unlicensed short-term rentals. In September 2025, three defendants settled: Kirill “Kirk” Ayzenberg agreed to pay $215,000, 5554 Green Oak, LLC agreed to pay $45,000, and Jungle Kerry, Inc. agreed to pay $20,000, for combined penalties of $280,000. All three were permanently barred from operating short-term rentals in the city except in full compliance with the Home-Sharing Ordinance, and the settlements returned at least 10 rent-stabilized units to the long-term housing market. Litigation against the primary defendants, Jabli and Ultimate Host, LLC, remained active as of the settlement announcement.
– Polymer80 ghost gun settlement. Her office secured a $5 million civil penalty and a permanent injunction against Polymer80, the nation’s largest maker of unserialized “ghost gun” kits, barring the company from selling its products in California without background checks and serialization. The underlying case was originally filed in 2021, before she took office, and was prosecuted with Everytown Law.
– Monsanto environmental settlement. The office reached a $35 million settlement in an environmental enforcement action against agribusiness company Monsanto.
– Verizon environmental settlement. In January 2026, Feldstein Soto announced a $7.7 million statewide environmental settlement against telecommunications company Verizon.
– Tobacco enforcement settlement. In October 2025, her office settled a case against the owners of a nine-location tobacco retail chain for $350,000 in civil penalties after the stores were found selling banned flavored tobacco products and tobacco to minors.
– Data-privacy settlement involving minors. The office reached a $500,000 settlement with an online media company accused of illegally harvesting data on minors.
– Airbnb price-gouging lawsuit. In July 2025, Feldstein Soto’s office sued Airbnb, alleging the platform allowed hosts to raise prices beyond legal limits on more than 2,000 listings during a declared state of emergency, in violation of California’s price-gouging law. As of this writing, that case remains active.
– Anti-trafficking initiatives. In September 2023, the office filed suit against a South Los Angeles motel described as a long-running “hub for prostitution.” In January 2026, Feldstein Soto and Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman launched the Western Avenue Initiative, a joint city-county effort targeting sex trafficking along Western Avenue.
Not every high-profile case has gone the city’s way. In June 2024, the city agreed to pay $300,000 to settle legal fees owed to journalist Ben Camacho and the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition after Feldstein Soto’s office sued them in an unsuccessful attempt to force the return of previously released LAPD officer photographs, a case that drew criticism from press freedom advocates and legal scholars.
Hydee Feldstein Soto Policies and Priorities
During her tenure, city attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto has focused on several enforcement priorities:
- Anti-human trafficking efforts, including a multi-agency task force targeting sex trafficking on South Figueroa Street
- Gun safety litigation, including a settlement that barred a major ghost gun manufacturer from selling unregistered kits in California
- Wage theft and workplace enforcement actions
- Lawsuits against landlords and companies accused of rent price gouging following the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires
- Enforcement against illegal short-term rental “party houses” and unlicensed cannabis storefronts
- Legal challenges against Trump administration actions affecting the city’s federal funding, including disaster relief and SNAP benefit litigation
Hydee Feldstein Soto Controversy: What to Know
The hydee feldstein soto controversy that has followed her time in office covers several separate issues:
Whistleblower and retaliation claims: A former high-ranking attorney in her office, William B. McGinnis, filed a lawsuit alleging he was placed on administrative leave and terminated after objecting to office decisions. His sworn declaration included allegations about workplace conduct and language used toward staff, which Feldstein Soto has disputed. A judge allowed the case to proceed past a motion to dismiss in 2025.
Rising city liability payouts: Critics, including some city council members, have pointed to a sharp increase in civil litigation payouts during her tenure. Feldstein Soto has attributed the increase to a broader statewide and nationwide trend of larger civil jury verdicts, not to her office’s strategy.
A large data breach: In April 2026, the city attorney’s office disclosed that roughly 7.7 terabytes of data, including confidential LAPD disciplinary records, had been exposed on an unsecured filesharing system tied to the office. The disclosure led the Los Angeles Police Protective League to formally withdraw its endorsement of her 2026 campaign, citing a lack of transparency about the breach.
Donor-related case dismissals: In May 2026, reporting from LAist cited internal emails alleging that prosecutors were directed to drop rent-gouging cases involving individuals identified as campaign donors. Feldstein Soto has denied that donations influenced any prosecutorial decisions.
Press freedom dispute: Her office pursued a lawsuit seeking the return of LAPD officer photographs that had been released under a public records request and later published online, a move that drew criticism from media organizations and legal scholars over press freedom concerns.
Hydee Feldstein Soto Political Party and Party Affiliation
A frequent search is hydee feldstein soto political party, or whether hydee feldstein soto is a democrat or republican. She is a registered member of the Democratic Party. It’s worth noting that the Los Angeles city attorney position itself, like other city offices in Los Angeles, is officially a nonpartisan elected role, meaning candidates do not run under a party label on the local ballot. So while the office itself carries no party designation, her personal party affiliation is Democratic.
Hydee Feldstein Soto vs Challengers 2026: The Reelection Race
Feldstein Soto ran for a second term in the 2026 Los Angeles city attorney election. The nonpartisan primary was held on June 2, 2026, with four candidates on the ballot: incumbent Hydee Feldstein Soto, Marissa Roy (a Deputy Attorney General in the California Attorney General’s Office), John McKinney (a Los Angeles County district attorney’s office prosecutor backed by the police union), and Aida Ashouri.
The results were a significant setback for the incumbent. Marissa Roy led the field with roughly 38 percent of the vote, John McKinney followed with about 32 percent, and Feldstein Soto placed third with about 20 percent, with Ashouri fourth at around 9.5 percent. Because no candidate reached the 50 percent threshold needed to win outright, Roy and McKinney advanced to a November 3, 2026 runoff, while Feldstein Soto’s bid for a second term ended in the primary. This makes the marissa roy vs hydee feldstein soto and john mckinney vs hydee feldstein soto matchups a defining storyline of the race, and it stands as a rare primary defeat of a sitting Los Angeles elected official.
Following the results, Feldstein Soto’s office released a statement saying she remained proud of her record in office, particularly her work on human trafficking and holding “large special interests” accountable, while stopping short of a full concession.
Hydee Feldstein Soto Endorsements in the 2026 Campaign
Heading into the 2026 primary, hydee feldstein soto endorsements included Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff, and several city council members, including Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Bob Blumenfield, Heather Hutt, Traci Park, Curren Price, John Lee, and Tim McOsker. Despite this institutional support, her campaign was outpaced by two well-funded challengers and weighed down by the controversies described above, including the loss of the Los Angeles Police Protective League’s endorsement after the data breach disclosure.
Personal Life
Public information on Hydee Feldstein Soto’s personal life is limited. In a public candidate survey, she described living in the Mid-City area of Los Angeles with her mother and a rescue dog. There is no verified public record addressing whether Hydee Feldstein Soto is married, has a husband, or has gone through a divorce, and no credible source confirms details on this topic. Readers searching is hydee feldstein soto married or hydee feldstein soto husband should treat unverified claims from social media or forums, including hydee feldstein soto reddit discussions, with caution, since this information is not part of her official biography.
Hydee Feldstein Soto Salary
As an elected official, her compensation is set by the Los Angeles City Charter rather than negotiated individually. Under the charter, the city attorney’s salary is fixed at 20 percent above the salary paid to a Los Angeles City Council member, whose pay is tied by law to that of a municipal court judge. Based on published council salary figures, this places the city attorney’s compensation in the range of roughly $260,000 annually, though the exact figure adjusts whenever judicial salaries change and is a matter of public record through the Los Angeles City Controller’s office.
City Attorney’s Office and the City of Los Angeles
The Los Angeles city attorney’s office operates independently of the mayor’s office but works closely with it and with the city council on legislation, contracts, and litigation. As Los Angeles prepares for major citywide events in the coming years, including hosting the 2028 Summer Olympics, the city attorney’s office is expected to play a role in reviewing agreements, permits, and legal matters connected to that preparation, alongside its ongoing casework.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Hydee Feldstein Soto? She is the 43rd Los Angeles City Attorney, elected in 2022 as the first woman and first Latina to hold the office.
Is Hydee Feldstein Soto a Democrat or Republican? She is a member of the Democratic Party, though the city attorney office is a nonpartisan elected position.
What happened in the hydee feldstein soto vs marissa roy race? Roy led the June 2026 primary with about 38 percent of the vote, McKinney placed second with about 32 percent, and Feldstein Soto placed third with about 20 percent, ending her bid for reelection.
What is Hydee Feldstein Soto’s ethnicity and background? She was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and identifies as Latina and Jewish.
Where can I find official information from the city attorney hydee feldstein soto office? The official Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office page and the city’s elected officials directory are the most reliable sources for current updates, statements, and contact information, including hydee feldstein soto email inquiries routed through the office’s official contact channels.
Last Updated on: October 20, 2026