Paul S. Marks

Paul S Marks Los Angeles Business Attorney
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University of Southern California, Gould School of Law, J.D., 1988

Honors: Editor, Moot Court Program

Brown University, B.A., History & Economics, 1983

Complex Litigation, Business Law

Admitted: State Bar of California; U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit; U.S. District Courts for the Central, Eastern, Northern, and Southern Districts of California.

Paul S. Marks

Partner

Mr. Marks has practiced civil and commercial litigation in California for over 30 years. Mr. Marks has served as “first chair” counsel in dozens of bench trials and over twenty jury trials that have reached verdict, and is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) with the rank of associate.

Mr. Marks received his law degree in 1988 from the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law, where he served as editor of the moot court program. He received undergraduate degrees in history and economics from Brown University in 1983. He is also a diplomate of the University of Coimbra in Coimbra, Portugal, where he was awarded a Gulbenkian Fellowship in 1981.

Beginning in 2011, Mr. Marks served as a Commissioner on the California Commission on Access to Justice, a governmental agency comprised of trial court and appellate judges and practicing lawyers, among other legal professionals. Its mission is to oversee and coordinate programs dedicated to improving access to the California courts by those who are unable to afford legal counsel. Among Mr. Marks’s fellow commissioners were three current members of the California Supreme Court.

Mr. Marks has served as a member and then an advisor on the Executive Committee of the Solo and Small Firm Section of the California Bar. Previously, he served on the Executive Committee of the State Bar’s Litigation Section, the Committee on the Administration of Justice, and the Litigation Section’s Committee on Civil Jury Instructions.

Mr. Marks is a former Chair of the Editorial Board of Los Angeles Lawyer Magazine. He has also served as a Delegate to the policy-making arm of the American Bar Association, the ABA’s House of Delegates.

Mr. Marks has served as a volunteer attorney for Public Counsel, the largest pro bono institution serving the legal needs of the disadvantaged. Based on his long-standing commitment to Public Counsel’s Community Development Project, Mr. Marks was honored as “Advocate of the Year” by Public Counsel for the year 2008.

SAMPLE JURY TRIAL SUCCESSES
  • [Confidential Firm Client] v. J. Messer, J. Alexander Co., Inc. Marks served as first-chair trial counsel in a construction dispute between contractor and subcontractor.  After being rebuffed on a low-five figure settlement demand, Mr. Marks’s client obtained a jury verdict which, with awarded legal fees added, exceeded $100,000.
  • Casarez v. [Confidential Firm Client]. Marks defended a real estate developer/manager against claims of fraud over a failed property investment.  The jury rendered a complete defense verdict after a six-day trial, and the court later denied all equitable claims.
  • City of Riverside v. [Confidential Firm Client]. Marks defended the firm’s client in an eminent domain case involving property taken in a street-widening project.  The jury’s verdict in favor of Mr. Marks’s client, of just over $300,000, was sufficiently greater than the City’s last settlement offer to justify an award of legal fees, which were added to the judgment.
  • Globefill v. [Confidential Firm Client]. Marks served as first-chair defense counsel in a three week trade dress infringement case in federal court, which resulted in a complete defense verdict for the firm’s client.
  • Alamo v. [Confidential Firm Client]. Marks served as first-chair defense counsel in a pregnancy discrimination case. After a modest plaintiff’s verdict ($10,000), the case was appealed all the way to the California Supreme Court, which reviewed the judgment and ordered further proceedings by the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal reversed the judgment for a retrial, in accordance with the Supreme Court’s mandate.
  • City of Stockton v. [Confidential Firm Client]. Marks was lead defense counsel in a three-week jury trial in San Joaquin County Superior Court. The case was a quiet title action, with environmental law overtones, involving a disputed parcel of land on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. After prevailing against both adverse parties, Mr. Marks and his client were awarded over one million dollars in private attorney general attorneys’ fees, and the trial court’s decision and fee award were upheld on appeal.
  • [Confidential Firm Client] v. Smith. Marks obtained a six-figure plaintiff’s verdict, topped by a six-figure legal fee award, in a case involving recovery of a sunken luxury yacht.
  • [Confidential Firm Client] v. Songhorian. Marks obtained a plaintiff’s verdict for the firm’s client in a week-long jury trial involving issues of civil assault and stalking.
  • [Confidential Firm Client] v. C.R. Shelton, etc. Marks served as first chair plaintiffs’ counsel in a complex residential construction defect lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court. The matter settled on confidential terms on the sixth day of trial.
  • Epicor Software Corp. v. [Confidential Firm Client]. Marks served as trial and appellate counsel in a commercial contract case relating to the purchase and sale of manufacturing software. As lead defense counsel, Mr. Marks obtained a defense verdict for the firm’s client, and the trial court awarded the client 100% of its attorneys’ fees, to be paid by the losing plaintiff. Although the plaintiff appealed these decisions, the California Court of Appeal upheld the jury verdict and the attorneys’ fees award in their entirety.
  • HBLA, Inc. v. [Confidential Firm Client]. Marks acted as “first chair” defense counsel in a contract and fraud case in Orange County Superior Court, in which the plaintiff accused Mr. Marks’s client of misappropriating a six-figure federal income tax payment. After a seven-day trial, the jury exonerated Mr. Marks’s client in full, while finding another defendant liable. The court later awarded attorneys’ fees to Mr. Marks’s client.
  • Palos Verdes Unified School Dist. v. [Confidential Firm Client]. Marks served as “first chair” defense counsel in a lease case in Los Angeles County Superior Court, in which the parties disputed the date on which a private elementary school’s lease ended. After a five-day trial, the jury awarded a verdict in favor of Mr. Marks’s client, and the plaintiff later agreed to reimburse the client’s attorneys’ fees. The opposing attorney now sits as a judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
  • [Confidential Firm Client] v. Mitsui Construction et al. Marks was one of plaintiff’s lead counsel in the largest civil litigation in the history of Micronesia. In a ten-month jury trial in Guam Superior Court, Mr. Marks conducted jury selection and examined over twenty-five trial witnesses. Mr. Marks’s client won a verdict of $73,000,000, and, in a second phase of the trial, with Mr. Marks cross-examining the Board Chairman of one of South Korea’s largest conglomerates, the firm’s client won a punitive damages award for another $73,000,000.
  • [Confidential Firm Client] v. Credilogical. Marks won a plaintiff’s verdict, with an award of attorneys’ fees, in a Fair Debt Collections Practice Act jury trial.
  • Baines Pickwick, Ltd. v. [Confidential Firm Client]. Marks defended one of Belgium’s largest manufacturers in a three-week jury trial in Orange County Superior Court.  The jury awarded his client a complete defense verdict, while finding its co-defendant, represented by separate counsel, liable for close to one million dollars and punitive damages.