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Principal Practice Areas:
Commercial Transactions/Real Estate Transactions
Commercial Litigation/Real Estate Litigation
Immigration Law
International Transactions/NAFTA Matters/Customs and Trade
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Other Practice Areas:
Antitrust Litigation and Counsel
Condemnation Law/Eminent Domain Cases/Relocation Assistance
Enforcement of Judgments/Collections
False Claims Act Cases/"Qui Tam" Litigation
Landlord-Tenant Law
Personal Injury/Wrongful Death
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PRINCIPAL PRACTICE AREAS
 Commercial Transactions/Real Estate Transactions
We perform and give advice on commercial transactions and real property conveyances of every kind on both sides of the border and in both English and Spanish. We also perform transnational transactions and acquisitions that require expertise in both U.S. and Mexican law, and we handle NAFTA matters as well as Canadian trade issues (see below). Mr. Maldonado, who maintains a superb network of contacts in Mexico, is proficient in the commercial and real property laws of both the United States and Mexico. Mr. Markham, a Harvard-trained lawyer and veteran of one of the world's great international law firms, has become an authority on contracts, partnerships, real property transactions, and other commercial matters.
Working together and with others, Mr. Maldonado and Mr. Markham can help you to have your particular agreement or transaction stated fully, clearly, and in the manner that is best calculated to promote and protect your interests.
In particular, we prepare and analyze business contracts of every type, partnership agreements and other operating agreements, franchise agreements, commercial leases, real property sales and transfers, tenancy-in-common agreements, agreements to own land in Mexico, sales of assets, sales of stock, secured obligations, employment agreements, and various other kinds of commercial arrangements. We also handle customs matters, import-export issues, trade issues, and NAFTA issues.
Commercial Litigation/Real Estate Litigation
We litigate business and real estate disputes of every description. Mr. Markham is an accomplished trial attorney who performs and oversees all of the firm's litigation work in the United States. We can help if someone has either breached an obligation owed to you or tricked you into an unfair agreement that has caused you harm. We can also help if you seek to be excused from an agreement or require guidance in understanding or implementing an agreement. We are particularly proficient in the following kinds of commercial and real estate matters:
Commercial Litigation (U.S.): Breaches of contract, partnership disputes, fiduciary breaches, interference with contracts, commercial fraud, misuse of confidential information and trade secrets, commercial defamation, unfair competition, employer-employee matters, and the whole range of issues that can arise between competitors or former colleagues.
Real Estate Litigation (U.S.): Foreclosures, condemnations and eminent domain cases, beneficial ownership claims, lease disputes, partitions, failures to disclose, refusals to perform, construction defects, nuisances, boundary disputes, slander of title, quieting of title, easements, title insurance, escrow funds, lender liability matters, commission disputes, etc.
Mexican Litigation. We also provide expert litigation of commercial and property disputes that arise in Mexico. Luis Alfonso Leyva-Castro, who is one of the best litigators in Tijuana, is in charge of the firm's litigation work in Mexico.
Immigration Law
We provide counseling and representation in all immigration matters on both sides of the border. We regularly obtain U.S. visas and other entry authorization of every kind, and we represent our clients in contested matters heard before U.S. administrative agencies and in the immigration courts.
Mr. Maldonado, who is widely regarded as a leading practitioner in this field, has a mastery of the basic United States immigration statutes and doctrines, and he keeps fully abreast of every change and development in the law. It is his professional habit to learn about new visa openings and immigration possibilities in the United States the very day it becomes possible to do so. In addition, he writes a popular bi-weekly column on immigration law in Frontera, which is the most widely read newspaper in Tijuana. He is also an expert on Mexican immigration law as well as foreign investment in Mexico and foreign ownership of assets or businesses in Mexico.
If you are one of our immigration clients, you can always review the status of your matter in strict confidence by clicking here.
International Transactions/NAFTA Matters/Customs and International Trade
The firm has special expertise in handling bi-national transactions that raise issues under both U.S. and Mexican law, and we are able to recognize and comprehensively address the various issues that are unique to such transactions. We make sure that our U.S. clients can conduct business and acquire property in Mexico on the most favorable possible terms.
We also handle NAFTA disputes and provide counseling on NAFTA and other trade matters, and we handle customs matters that arise under either U.S. or Mexican law.
We also work on Canadian-U.S. matters and maintain a professional relationship with one of Canada's leading firms, Ogilvy Renault, where Mr. Markham clerked during the summer after his second year of law school. If you have trade issues that arise under NAFTA or wish to conduct business across the U.S.-Canadian border or the U.S.-Mexican border, we can serve all of your legal and administrative needs, doing so with the foresight and skill that will allow your business to conduct its operations as efficiently and profitably as the law allows.
Lastly, we litigate these matters when necessary. If you have a trade dispute, a customs issue, or some other commercial dispute that concerns cross-border transactions, we offer the finest litigation and advocacy available for such matters.
OTHER PRACTICE AREAS
Antitrust Litigation and Counsel
The firm handles antitrust matters for both plaintiffs and defendants. We have successfully prosecuted and defended civil claims under Sections 1 and 2 of the the Sherman Act, the Clayton Act, and the California Cartwright Act, and we have successfully represented defendants against criminal charges of price-fixing and other criminal violations of the Sherman Act. Mr. Markham, who learned to litigate large antitrust cases at a prominent international law firm (Coudert Brothers), has developed an active interest in the application of antitrust law to the computer and tele-communications industries. We have also litigated cases that concern the conflict between antitrust law and the First Amendment right to seek redress from the government. Please see our article: An Overview Of Antitrust Law
Condemnation Law/Eminent Domain Cases/Relocation Assistance
The firm has litigated and successfully negotiated large condemnation matters, including a multi-million dollar settlement that far surpassed the government's original offer and was made only after we filed suit in federal court to challenge the constitutionality of California's condemnation and relocation statutes. We accept condemnation cases on contingency, are proficient at handling these matters from start to finish, and have excellent contacts with reputable appraisers and business valuation experts. Please contact us about your condemnation case in strict confidence by sending an e-mail to condemnations@malmarlaw.com.
Enforcement of Judgments/Collections
The firm has successfully enforced judgments against unwilling judgment-debtors, and it has successfully collected large sums from reticent, evasive debtors. We have often succeeded by seizing assets, reversing fraudulent transfers of assets, identifying large hidden holdings that debtors have tried in vain to conceal, and invoking creditor protections afforded by law.
False Claims Cases/"Qui Tam" Litigation
We try cases under the US False Claims Act and also under the California False Claims Act. In these cases we represent private individuals who have information about fraudulent schemes that others have used to overcharge a government agency for work or services. Typically, the private individual is an employee or former employee of a company that has defrauded a particular government agency either by receiving money that was never owed or by withholding excess funds that should have been returned. We help this private individual to "relate" the undetected fraud to the appropriate government investigators, and we can then bring a "qui tam" lawsuit under the proper false claims statutes in order to recoup the ill-gotten sums and other damages from the wrongdoer. If we succeed and obtain a recovery, part of it (usually 15% to 25%) can be awarded to the private individual who exposed the fraud, and the remainder is returned to the government agency that was defrauded in the first place. We litigate these cases on a contingency basis. These cases can sometimes yield very large recoveries, and they serve the public interest by exposing, punishing, and discouraging fraud against public agencies that are funded with our taxpayer dollars. If you know about a scheme to defraud a government agency of money and want to pursue a recovery, please contact us in strict confidence at contingency@malmarlaw.com.
Landlord-Tenant Law
The firm litigates landlord-tenant matters for both landlords and tenants. We handle evictions as well as all matters related to evictions (e.g., warranty of habitability, retaliatory evictions, abandonment of property, etc.). Mr. Markham has tried many eviction cases for both landlords and tenants. We handle both commercial and residential tenancies and have had successful results in cases that arise under the Ellis Act as well as the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. The firm regularly represents and advises landlords and on occasion it also represents tenants in commercial tenancy matters and other matters. In addition, Mr. Markham has examined the various rent-control laws and ordinances to determine whether they arguably violate the "just takings clause" of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Personal Injury/Wrongful Death
We have significant experience in the litigation of major personal injury claims. We try cases for wrongful death, loss of limb, accidental maiming, paralysis, and other significant personal injuries. We have obtained large recoveries in difficult cases in which the defendants have insisted that there was no loss or that they have little or no responsibility for the claimed loss. We never allow a defendant to wear us down by trying to swamp us with unnecessary work -- a practice that regrettably is all too commonplace in personal injury matters. We see these cases through from start to a proper finish.
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