William A. Markham, San Diego Attorney

Mr. Markham is a San Diego attorney who obtained his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1987. He is a successful trial lawyer who has obtained jury verdicts, bench verdicts, and substantial settlements in complex business disputes, antitrust matters, and complex real estate disputes (click here to review a partial listing of Mr. Markham's recent successes). He received his initial professional training as a litigation associate in a major international law firm (Coudert Bros, now dissolved), whose clients included sovereign governments, Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 companies, universities, and other prominent clients. He afterwards established his own practice and then became a founding partner in Maldonado & Markham in 2005. He is also an acclaimed author of a series of popular articles that address various legal issues (click here to review them), and he has been interviewed and quoted by the New York Times, CNN, NBC-San Diego, Univision, and other media. The New York Times has characterized him as an "expert" in foreclosure law. He also served as an adjunct professor of legal advocacy and legal writing at Hastings Law School as well as an adjunct professor of constitutional law at Lincoln Law School.

Above all, Mr. Markham is a trial lawyer who litigates difficult, challenging disputes whose outcomes matter enormously to his clients, and to this end he applies his knowledge of the law and tenacity in the service of his clients. Mr. Markham was nominated by his peers in 2006 and again in 2007 as a semi-finalist in the category of "best business litigator in San Diego County" in the annual poll of attorneys conducted by the San Diego Daily Transcript. In 2010, he was again nominated by his peers as a semi-finalist in the category of the "best real estate and construction litigators" in San Diego County in the same poll.

Mr. Markham excels at litigating and trying antitrust matters, substantial business disputes, substantial real estate disputes, and related matters. He offers his services at reasonable rates (owing to our skillful management of overhead costs), so that a broad array of clients are able to engage his services. More generally, he has obtained superb results time after time for his clients, who have included major companies, established firms, entrepreneurs, investors, and others. Below is a summary of his professional accomplishments and career history, and elsewhere on this website you can read more about Mr. Markham's approach to litigating complex and difficult cases.

Practice Areas
Past Successes
Publications/Law Professor Assignments
Legal Education/Career History/Languages/Memberships
Summary of Recent Successes

Practice Areas: Mr. Markham devotes his entire practice to the litigation of civil disputes, and in particular he has extensive experience and a proven track record as a litigator of complex business disputes, antitrust matters, and complex real estate disputes. He has litigated cases in federal and state court on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants in a wide array of matters, often in cases that have concerned exceptionally difficult challenges or novel questions of law.

Complex Business Disputes. Mr. Markham litigates disputes between companies, disputes over commercial contracts, partnership/LLC membership disputes, shareholder disputes, co-investor disputes, and the full range of issues that concern contract law, misrepresentation, and commercial law.
Antitrust Matters. Mr. Markham litigates antitrust cases for both plaintiffs and defendants in federal cases arising under the Sherman Act and the Clayton Act as well as in California cases arising under the Cartwright Act. In particular, he has litigated the following kinds of antitrust claims: Price-fixing, bid-rigging, horizontal market allocation, tying agreements, unreasonable restraints of trade, monopolization claims, and various related matters. He has substantial experience litigating major antitrust cases and has handled antitrust matters that have arisen in the following industries: Telecommunications and telecommunications infrastructure, petrochemicals and petroleum refining, computer hardware, computer software development and maintenance, marine/harbor infrastructures, and various other lines of commerce. He has also handled criminal cases for "subjects", "targets", and putative defendants in ongoing antitrust investigations, and he has handled amnesty matters that arise under the Department of Justice's guidelines for antitrust amnesty.
Real Estate Disputes. Mr. Markham handles real estate litigation of every description, including condemnation matters, real estate development disputes, lender representation in foreclosure matters, complex foreclosures, real estate contract disputes, title disputes, lien priority disputes, real estate fraud, judicial partitions, and other kinds of real estate matters. Among other things, he was the lead attorney for the defendants in City of Santa Cruz v. Lau, a condemnation case done by a public agency for the benefit of a private developer. The Lau case, which was litigated in 2005, received front-page coverage in the New York Times and coverage from various national TV and radio networks. This was a groundbreaking case of eminent domain law in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's surprising Kelo decision.

Past Successes: Among other things, Mr. Markham has obtained the following results for his clients in these different cases:

Complex Real Estate Litigation. A recovery of $10.4 million on behalf of a trust in a complicated dispute involving extensive, disputed land transfers.
Complex Eminent Domain Litigation. A condemnation award of $4.4 million for a large factory operation in a complex eminent domain proceeding. In this matter, the condemnor's original offer was $2.8 million.
Groundbreaking Eminent Domain Litigation. A condemnation award worth $3.1 million in a high profile eminent domain proceeding brought in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's Kelo decision. In this matter, the condemnor's original offer was $1.6 million.
Complex Insurance Litigation. A recovery of $2.2 million from an insurer on behalf of an insured in a complex dispute over the insurer's duty to indemnify. The insurer initially refused to pay any sum at all to the insured.
Complete Defense/Relief in Antitrust Case. Mr. Markham successfully defended a group of manufacturers of polypropylene products against criminal charges and civil claims for price-fixing and horizontal market allocation.
Successful Amnesty for Alleged Antitrust Conspirator. Mr. Markham successfully coordinated a comprehensive amnesty arrangement with the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of a marine infrastructure company accused of criminal price-fixing and horizontal market allocation.
Large Recoveries for Antitrust Plaintiffs. Early in his career, while working as an associate litigator at Coudert, Mr. Markham helped several software and hardware firms to obtain substantial judgments and settlements worth millions of dollars in complex litigation that concerned opposing claims and counter-claims for copyright infringement and antitrust violations. The antitrust claims principally concerned unlawful tie-in arrangements, impermissible restraints of trade, and unlawful monopolization.
Other Cases. In many other matters over the years Mr. Markham has obtained substantial redress and notable successes for his clients.
If you wish, please refer to this summary of Mr. Markham's recent trial victories and substantial settlements.

Publications/Law Professor Assignments: Mr. Markham has written several articles on commercial and real estate law, which are widely read and have served as reference sources for other attorneys and the public at large. (Please see his articles.) Moreover, he has twice served on the side as an adjunct law professor while continuing to practice law on a full-time basis, offering one course at Hastings Law School in 1990 and another at Lincoln Law School in 1994.

Legal Education/Career History/Languages/Memberships: Mr. Markham received his law degree in 1987 from Harvard Law School. While there, he served as an editor and later as an associate editor of the Harvard International Law Journal. After law school, he passed the California Bar exam on his first attempt and was admitted by petition to the DC Bar Association because of his qualifying high score on the California Bar exam. In 1988, Mr. Markham became an associate attorney in one of the leading international firms of the time, Coudert Brothers, working in its San Francisco office. At this law firm, which represented Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 companies as well as sovereign governments, Mr. Markham received his initial professional training and first learned to litigate major antitrust matters. He established his own law practice in 1990. Since then he has evolved into a seasoned trial lawyer who mostly litigates real estate disputes and commercial matters in California. He enjoyed a short sabbatical from his work during part of 2001. In addition, Mr. Markham is completely fluent in English and French and can converse fluently in Spanish. He uses his language skills in order to confer with clients in their native language. He is admitted to practice law in California, Washington, D.C. and various federal courts. Mr. Markham was nominated by his peers in 2006 and again in 2007 as a semi-finalist in the category of "best business litigator in San Diego County" in the annual poll of attorneys conducted by the San Diego Daily Transcript. In 2010, he was again nominated by his peers as a semi-finalist in the category of the "best real estate and construction litigators" in San Diego County in the same annual poll of San Diego attorneys. He belongs to the following professional organizations: The French-American Chamber of Commerce (San Diego County), the California Bar Association, the District of Columbia Bar Association, and the Bar Association of San Diego County. You can contact him directly at wm@maldonadomarkham.com