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Business Litigation

William Markham and Dorn Bishop have both litigated many business disputes and commercial claims and often obtained successful results because of their overall approach and thorough understanding of contract law, corporation law, and business torts.[1]The essential business torts are (1) breach of fiduciary duty; (2) self-dealing; (3) misappropriation; (4) fraud — i.e., intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent … Continue reading

They can perform most kinds of business litigation or manage a team of lawyers specially assembled to litigate a particular case. In addition, they are each well-trained in other areas of the law that sometimes have dispositive importance in business litigation.

Mr. Bishop, before becoming a federal prosecutor, was a partner at Latham & Watkins and led its San Diego insurance group. In that capacity, he gained an excellent understanding of insurance contracts, the legal doctrines that govern their interpretation, and an insurer’s statutory and contractual duties to its insureds. Thus trained, he advises his clients and sometimes litigates their claims on these points, and in particular he has litigated substantial and landmark cases that resulted in significant reforms of California’s laws on insurance contracts and an insurer’s various duties to its insureds.

Mr. Markham has worked mostly on antitrust matters since the early 2000s, but before then he litigated and tried all manner of contract claims as well as various business torts, and he occasionally litigated claims for securities fraud under the principal federal and California anti-fraud statutes.[2]See 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b) (codifies Securities Exchange Act § 10(b); 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5 (promulgates SEC Rule 10b-5); see also California Corporations Code § 25401 et seq.He has also litigated substantial claims for false advertising and trademark infringement under the Lanham Act. He continues to accept these kinds of cases from time to time and remains well-versed in these topics, having learned about them much earlier in his career.

Mr. Markham’s antitrust work also improves his ability to litigate other kinds of complex commercial litigation. He closely follows business and economic trends in various industries served by his clients, and, to improve his understanding of antitrust law, he has learned the fundamentals of classical economic theory, microeconomics, and industrial organization. That knowledge is also useful to him in complex business litigation and even when analyzing disputes in smaller cases.

Elsewhere on this site you can read more about our experience handling the following kinds of business litigation: trademark infringement and related offenses, false advertising, securities fraud, RICO claims, and insurance disputes.

MR. MARKHAM’S ARTICLES ON ANTITRUST LAW

AN OVERVIEW OF ANTITRUST LAW (By William Markham, © 2000)

“Antitrust law is the law of competition and is perhaps the least understood law of all. This article provides an overview and explanation of the essential principles of antitrust law.”
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ANTITRUST EXEMPTIONS AND IMMUNITIES (By William Markham, © 2022)

“Over the years, Congress and the federal courts have established various immunities from federal antitrust law, removing from its reach specified commercial activities and even entire lines of commerce.”
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HOW THE CONSUMER-WELFARE STANDARD TRANSFORMED CLASSICAL ANTITRUST LAW (William Markham, © 2021)

“Since the late 1970s, antitrust law in the United States has been transformed out of recognition and rendered largely toothless by consumer-welfare jurisprudence….,”
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ANTITRUST AND FREE MARKETS (BY William Markham, © 2022)

“Some critics of antitrust law treat it as mere governmental overreach and an unwelcome infringement upon the ordinary operations of our free markets. (….) That criticism betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the very term ‘free markets,’ which refers to markets that are free of any undue restraint, whether public or private.”
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UNLAWFUL PRICE DISCRIMINATION (By William Markham, © 2013)

“In this article I take up the obscure, problematic doctrine of illegal price discrimination, which was codified by the Robinson-Patman Act during the Great Depression, and which the modern, conservative Supreme Court has severely limited.”
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WHY ANTITRUST LAWS MATTER (By William Markham, © 2006)

“The antitrust laws are supposed to promote and protect competition, or, if you will, competitive processes in distinct ‘lines of commerce’ or ‘relevant markets.’ This alone is their proper purpose.

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MR. MARKHAM’S ARTICLES ON TRIAL PROCEDURE AND CONTRACT LAW

MAKING SENSE OF THE RULES OF EVIDENCE AND PRESENTING YOUR EVIDENCE AT TRIAL (By William Markham, 2011)

“I try in this article simply to set forth a list of simple rules to explain the key points of the law of evidence. I also offer several pointers on organizing evidence in order to present it competently at trial.”
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ANATOMY OF A LAWSUIT (By William Markham, © 2007)

“This article is written for non-lawyers, young litigators, and non-litigator attorneys who wish to understand how a lawsuit works in practice from start to finish.”
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AN OVERVIEW OF CONTRACT LAW (By William Markham, 2002)

“Contract law lies at the heart of our system of laws and serves as the foundation of our entire society. This is not an exaggeration. (….) Our society depends upon free exchange in the marketplace at every level.
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LAW OFFICES OF WILLIAM MARKHAM, P.C.
402 West Broadway, Suite 400
San Diego, CA 92101
Tel. (619) 221-4400
inquiries@markhamlawfirm.com

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References

References
1The essential business torts are (1) breach of fiduciary duty; (2) self-dealing; (3) misappropriation; (4) fraud — i.e., intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment, and false promise; (5) interference (with existing contracts and future commercial dealings); and (6) trade libel.
2See 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b) (codifies Securities Exchange Act § 10(b); 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5 (promulgates SEC Rule 10b-5); see also California Corporations Code § 25401 et seq.