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Our Practice Areas
Real
Estate
The heart of our firm is real estate. We have gained a statewide
reputation in representing clients in real estate industry matters
ranging from mechanic’s lien foreclosure and stop notice
litigation for large institutional clients, to smaller easement
disputes. We have tried to judgment cases involving lien priority
issues, specific performance claims (and related lis pendens
issues), construction defect claims, foreclosures (both judicial
and non-judicial), receiverships, condemnation matters, claims
of escrow negligence, title insurance coverage issues, and related
bad faith litigation. We have numerous published appellate court
decisions to our credit, and we are proud of our contributions
to the development of real estate law in California.
We offer transactional real estate services to sophisticated
individuals and institutional clients, involving such matters
as construction loan financing, commercial leasing, and business
entity formation. We pride ourselves on our ability to craft
transactional documents that squarely address many of the troublesome
issues clients frequently encounter. Because of our litigation
expertise, we believe we have a better perspective on the importance
of clear and concise transactional documents. We
welcome the opportunity to address any particular problem or
issue that you may face concerning a real estate matter.
Financial
Institutions and Bank/Thrift Representation
We represent small and medium-sized lenders in loan document
preparation, secured and unsecured loan work-outs, and litigation
related to these issues. Because of our strong emphasis on real
property matters, we provide a wide range of experience in handling
mortgage-related issues such as judicial and non-judicial foreclosures
(including the complex area of unified foreclosures), receiverships,
title defects, and title insurance coverage issues. Our firm
has faced the wide range of attacks typically asserted against
real estate collateral in a variety of circumstances. We
also provide an array of services in general commercial law
for our commercial clients, including banks, thrifts, credit
unions, and related regulated entities. The scope of our services
includes the following:
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We offer lender representation regarding creditors' rights
and commercial litigation that covers various aspects of debt
recovery, including work-out agreements, litigation, provisional
remedies (such as receiverships, attachments and claim and
delivery) and post-judgment enforcement.
- Collection on defaulted unsecured business loans, including
seeking recovery through writs of attachment on available
assets. - Pursuing motions for relief from the bankruptcy automatic
stay on defaulted secured real estate business loans.
Professional
Malpractice Defense
Our
firm has a long history of representing professionals and their firms, in errors and omissions claims, breach
of fiduciary duty litigation, and related malpractice disputes.
This has been part of our practice for more than twenty years.
We have served as approved counsel for a number of errors and
omissions insurers, focusing on high-exposure claims arising
from real estate or commercial matters, including both litigation
and transactional malpractice. We have more recently directly
represented the interests of larger firms with high retentions. We
are proud of our representation of attorneys over many years,
and we are sensitive to the disturbing and taxing impact these
cases have on our clients.
Business Law
Our firm assists sophisticated individuals and corporate clients
in the formation, operation and sale of businesses formed as corporations,
limited liability companies, partnerships, and related business
entities. We have also represented clients in franchise law
and commercial transactions, including intellectual property
issues.
Environmental Law
Our firm, as part of its focus in real property law, has represented
clients involved in environmental regulation issues, including
compliance and disputes over liability for remediation. Over
the years, we have represented both private clients and public
agencies in a variety of environmental matters, ranging from
consultation on due diligence requirements in transactions,
to contribution actions for cleanup costs.
Class and Representative Actions
We
are one of the few law firms in the nation that consistently
represents clients in both prosecution and defense of class
actions, and other representative claims brought under California’s
Unfair Business Practice Act.
This is a highly specialized area of practice that requires skillful
evaluation of a range of issues that are dynamic and complex. For many
institutional clients, such claims may raise serious issues concerning
appropriate financial disclosure, especially if the client is a
publicly traded company. We are proud that given our relatively small
size, our partners possess significant depth and experience in handling
approximately thirty class or representative actions since 1986. And we
have done so for both defendants, and a select group of plaintiffs.
Simply put, we have been on both sides of the litigation fence. We
evaluate these types of cases with our specialties in mind.
We strongly encourage clients in defense of class and representative
actions to carefully evaluate any litigation from the perspective
of both legal and practical solutions. We have learned the value
of intensive investigation of the claimed offending practices,
and the best approach to resolving the dispute cost-effectively,
and avoid expensive and frequently very intrusive litigation.
Our firm believes that a clear and thorough understanding of
the client’s business, its related business environment,
and the market forces that mold industry practices, are critical
to a clear understanding of the nature of the claims, and the
best, long-term solution.
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