Our Team - Markham Law Firm

Our Team

William Markham is our lead attorney for antitrust litigation, antitrust counseling, much of our business litigation, and our real estate litigation. Dorn Bishop, who is “of counsel” to the firm, handles certain kinds of business litigation, insurance matters, and white-collar crime. Laura Avila is a highly skilled and experienced paralegal who helps us to compile, organize, and present our proofs, and Ana Ruiz is an all-purpose office assistant who is tireless, diligent, and skilled at organizational work. We also work with first-rate service providers, and in our larger cases we work with other attorneys, all of whom have superior experience and a proven track-record of success in high-stakes litigation.

For each matter, we conduct an investigation, develop a strategy at the outset, form a team for the case, and delegate the expected tasks so that each one is performed by a professional who has the appropriate level of expertise for the task in question. If we accept a case, one of our senior attorneys (William Markham or Dorn Bishop) will prepare all significant written submissions, conduct the essential depositions, and act as the lead attorney at trial and on any appeal. Where appropriate, we assign other tasks to associate attorneys, paralegal assistants and outside service-providers who work under the supervision of one of our principal attorneys. In larger matters, we can call upon colleagues who have worked with us before in order to provide sufficient staffing for even the most demanding matters, including multi-district litigation, large complex litigation, and global investigations of cartels. We aim never to overstaff a matter (which can lead to wasteful duplication of effort and unreasonable bills), and we accept only a few significant matters at any one time, so that we can always devote our full, undivided attention to each of our cases.

William Markham

William Markham is a trial attorney based in San Diego who obtained his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1987 and has litigated cases in California for the past thirty-five years. He tries cases in court, conducts appeals, and principally litigates the following kinds of matters: antitrust cases (civil and criminal), false advertising, trademark offenses, securities fraud, other kinds of business litigation, and certain kinds of real estate litigation. Click here to learn more about his professional expertise, recent engagements, and past accomplishments.

Dorn G. Bishop

Dorn G. Bishop is “of counsel” to our firm. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, a former prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Office, a former partner in a leading international law firm (Latham & Watkins) and a veteran trial lawyer who has successfully tried many cases to juries. He has expert proficiency in insurance law and substantial experience litigating white-collar criminal matters, and he is an experienced, highly capable business litigator.

Laura Avila

Licensed attorney, Laura Avila works for us as our senior paralegal assistant and Mr. Markham’s executive assistant. She holds a law degree from a very good law school in Mexico (Universidad Autonoma de Baja California) and has worked with Mr. Markham since 2006. She helps us to obtain, organize, analyze, and present evidence for use at trial, organizes our case files, and collaborates with our IT specialists to ensure that all of our information is properly stored, archived, and instantly accessible to each person in our firm. Ms. Avila plays a key role in our fundamental work and regularly collaborates directly with Mr. Markham in order to help him improve his presentation of evidence and arguments. You can reach her directly at la@markhamlawfirm.com.

Ana Ruiz

Ana Ruiz (née Acosta) joined our firm in mid-2011 and works as a paralegal assistant and all-purpose office assistant, helping our team to organize and use the information and evidence that we need to try our cases and handle our matters. She is a highly motivated, capable, and practical assistant who is fluent in English and Spanish, and she is trained and highly proficient in computer technology and all manner of digital devices and applications. She also excels at organizing computer files, old-fashioned files, and anything else that requires organization. You can reach her directly at aa@markhamlawfirm.com.

Other Professionals

In each of our matters, William Markham or Dorn Bishop charts the underlying strategy, performs the essential work, composes our important submissions, and tries the case in court. We often collaborate with younger, highly qualified attorneys, who help us to perform our work, particularly in larger matters. All of our attorneys are supported by our paralegal assistants, Laura Avila and Ana Ruiz. In our larger matters, we sometimes work with other highly qualified senior attorneys and delegate certain kinds of tasks to junior attorneys who perform their work at a lower hourly rate under the direct supervision of Mr. Markham or Mr. Bishop.

For example, in one case we quickly assembled a team of eight contract attorneys who worked under the direction of Mr. Markham and Mr. Bishop. We associate only with attorneys who have excellent backgrounds, are highly skilled at their work, and meet our professional standards.

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."

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."

HOW THE CONSUMER-WELFARE STANDARD TRANSFORMED CLASSICAL ANTITRUST LAW (By 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....,"

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.”

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.”

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.

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."

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."

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.... Our society depends upon free exchange in the marketplace at every level. Contract law makes this possible."