Litigation

Allen Matkins' litigation practice is comprehensive and we are recognized nationwide for our expertise in handling complex business disputes and litigation. Creative, talented, results oriented, energetic, resourceful, efficient, experienced, technologically adept and aggressive; all terms that describe Allen Matkins' litigators.

Our aim is to provide all clients with timely and cost-effective problem-solving assistance, whether that means pursuing an alternative dispute resolution or aggressively trying the case. We understand the need to achieve swift and efficient results.

Real Estate Litigation

Our litigators have handled virtually every type of real estate dispute-our real estate litigation capability and experience are second to none. Because of the knowledge and expertise engendered in our attorneys as a result of the firm's dominant position in the real estate industry, Allen Matkins has a unique and unparalleled ability to handle all types of real estate litigation (whether involving commercial, industrial, residential, office, mobile home, retail, resort, warehouse, or multi-phased properties or projects).

Contract and Partnership Disputes
Our firm's litigators have broad and in-depth expertise in contract and partnership disputes involving real estate projects. This includes cases involving breach of purchase agreements, dissolution of partnerships and limited liability companies, lender and financing disputes, and fraud or other torts in connection with the sale or development of real estate.

Land Use
Our trial attorneys have significant depth and experience in land use matters. The firm's broad experience in dealing with community concerns and our in-depth knowledge of federal and state environmental and land use regulations is invaluable in prosecuting and defending against the variety of land use actions that arise in the real estate, energy, manufacturing, waste management, technology and investment industries.

Construction
The litigation attorneys in our Construction Practice Group provide an outstanding complement to the real estate litigation practice. We represent owners, developers, suppliers, public entities, contractors and design professionals in major construction defect claims, owner/contractor disputes for cost overruns and delays, and mechanic liens cases.

Landlord Tenant
Commercial leasing and commercial lease disputes represent a core practice of Allen Matkins. Ownership and management of commercial and industrial sites, or being the tenant in such real estate, will sometimes include disputes involving lease agreements, tenant improvements, building expense allocations, and possessory rights.

Water Rights & Resources
Real estate development in many parts of the Western United States is often a function of water rights. The firm's attorneys regularly represent clients in matters involving water resources, water rights disputes and exchanges, transfers, sales and leases of water.

Business Litigation

Corporation, Partnership & Joint Venture Disputes
Allen Matkins has developed a specialty in matters where the management, operation, organization or control of businesses are issues, whether those businesses are sole proprietorships, corporations, partnerships, joint ventures or some other form of entity.

Trade Secret & Unfair Competition
Our attorneys have significant expertise in the critical areas of non-competition agreements, warranty claims, licensing disputes, trademarks, counterfeiting, and trade secret disputes. Allen Matkins also has extensive experience in unfair competition and trade regulation cases, including those brought under California Business and Professions Code Sections 17200 and 17500. We have successfully represented clients in highly publicized lawsuits both on a state and national level, brought by individuals, corporations, the California State Attorney General and private "attorneys general" alleging unfair, illegal and fraudulent business practices, unfair competition and deceptive advertising, invasion of privacy or misappropriation of name and/or likeness.

Intellectual Property
Our attorneys are skilled in recognizing and evaluating issues surrounding intellectual property disputes, including trade secret, copyright and trademark cases, and warranty and licensing claims. Early resolution to permit clients' business operations to proceed in an orderly fashion is crucial in these situations.

Banking & Financial Services
Allen Matkins' Business Litigation Practice Group has broad experience in financial services matters. We have successfully handled litigation involving secured and unsecured claims, loan agreements, letters of credit, bonds and sureties, truth-in-lending, antitrust, regulatory issues and lender liability.

Consumer Litigation
Allen Matkins' commercial litigators have handled many cases where claims under consumer protection statutes have been raised. We have handled extremely complex consumer cases including unfair competition claims brought by the California Attorney General and 24 counties against the tobacco industry, similar claims against a defendant involved in multiple class actions in California and 11 western states, and cases against major financial institutions charged with unfair competition.

Class Action Litigation
Our class action practice has encompassed cases of all types and sizes - including national classes of plaintiffs seeking recompense for personal injuries, state and federal classes seeking recovery based on securities fraud, exposure to contaminated groundwater, pharmaceutical products, large-scale chemical exposures, property damage arising out of defective consumer products, and restitution and disgorgement issues involved in commercial and financial services cases.

Securities Fraud
Initial public offerings and public financings of both private and public businesses and projects reached record levels in the past few years. These offerings and financings have resulted in securities fraud lawsuits, including multi-million dollar class actions and other cases filed by or for investors. Our litigators have successfully handled these types of lawsuits, drawing upon our vast class action experience and the firm's comprehensive transactional practice.

Environmental, Toxic Tort and Product Litigation

Environmental
Allen Matkins' attorneys are acknowledged experts in CERCLA (Superfund) enforcement, clean-up, cost recovery and contribution issues, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts and other state and federal environmental statutes, redevelopment of previously contaminated property including site assessments, groundwater and soil contamination, environmental insurance, asbestos removal, supervision of remedial contractors and underground storage tank matters and the many related issues. We have negotiated beneficial settlements with all branches of the federal, state and county enforcement agencies, assisted in the development of environmental legislation, defended countless enforcement actions and tried cases involving these issues throughout California and the southwestern United States.

Toxic Tort
Allen Matkins' litigators also have extensive experience in representing real property owners, petrochemical manufacturers, suppliers and distributors in toxic tort actions arising out of premises liability and product manufacturing claims, involving such issues as exposure to industrial solvents, chemical reagents, heavy metals, pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, natural/herbal products, asbestos, PCBs, EMFs and mold, subsurface, airborne and operational releases, vehicular and tank spills, and related right to know and failure to warn claims.

We have tried a significant number of both property damage and personal injury cases involving the nature and extent of groundwater and soil contamination, cancer causation, genetic complications, birth defects and immune deficiencies providing familiarity with hydrogeological science, groundwater, soil, gas and air dispersion modeling, theories and models for economic damages from environmental harm, and the unique causation questions often raised by these cases. We are well versed in the use and exclusion of scientific evidence, whether in a state or federal forum.

Aviation
Our attorneys who specialize in aviation matters represent air carriers and airframe and component part manufacturers in complex litigation around the world, including profile cases arising out of aircraft disasters in Brazil and Singapore. Members of our Aviation Practice Group have over 40 years of legal experience in the aerospace industry and over 5,000 hours practical experience in commercial, multi-engine and single engine planes with instrument ratings. We also understand the commercial side of aviation and have experience in the purchase, sale and leasing of aviation equipment, and related disputes.

Product Liability
Our product liability lawyers have always been on the cutting edge of the development of the product liability field having handled significant product claims involving mechanical, electrical, medical and pharmaceutical products, fuel systems, and various types of structural failures. We have tried product cases in venues throughout the United States, conducted major discovery activities in Europe, South America and the Far East, and served as local counsel and national coordinating counsel.

Professional Liability
Malpractice cases are very challenging because juries often subjectively apply a higher standard to professionals. We represent attorneys, accountants, contractors, architects and engineers in these high-stakes liability cases, which often threaten the established business reputation and economic survival of an individual, partnership or firm.

Insurance Coverage & Bad Faith
Insurance affects everyone, and the existence or lack of coverage can greatly impact the outcome of any claim or case. Allen Matkins' attorneys are adept in counseling clients in the intricacies of insurance policies and insurance coverage, negotiating the resolution of disputed coverage claims or litigating insurance coverage and "bad faith" issues arising from such diverse matters as workplace harassment and abuse, environmental "toxic tort" liability, construction defect coverage, failure to defend or indemnify, title and mortgage insurance, natural disaster damage and advertising injury.