California business litigation, phase-priced.

What we mean by business litigation

Commercial disputes between businesses, or between businesses and their owners, customers, vendors, or competitors. The fact patterns vary — a customer who refuses to pay, a vendor who breached a key contract, a competitor stealing trade secrets, a former employee taking customer relationships, a buyer who's claiming the business they acquired isn't what was represented.

What ties these together is the structure: California civil litigation under the Code of Civil Procedure, in California Superior Court (or federal court when diversity or federal questions apply), running through pleadings, discovery, motion practice, and trial. We handle both sides — plaintiff and defense.

The disputes we handle most often

Breach of contract

Commercial breach claims — failure to pay, failure to deliver, failure to perform per the contract terms. Often paired with anticipatory-repudiation claims when the breach is signaled before performance is due.

Breach of fiduciary duty

Officers, directors, managers, and partners owe fiduciary duties to the entities and co-owners. Self-dealing, usurping corporate opportunities, mismanagement that crosses into actionable territory.

Fraud and misrepresentation

Intentional or negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment, fraudulent transfer (often paired with judgment-enforcement work). The pleading bar is higher than for ordinary commercial claims, but the damages can be.

Business torts

Tortious interference with contract or prospective economic advantage, unfair competition under California Business and Professions Code §17200, trade-secret misappropriation under the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act.

Post-acquisition disputes

Earnout disputes, indemnification claims, breach-of-rep-and-warranty actions following business sales. Often complex because the underlying transaction documents drive the dispute structure.

How phase pricing changes the conversation

Most California business-litigation matters don't actually need full litigation to resolve. They need a credible threat of litigation plus a structured negotiation. The pre-filing phase of our work — assessment memo, demand letter, settlement negotiation, optional mediation — resolves a meaningful percentage of these matters before pleadings.

Phase pricing means you're not stuck on an open-ended hourly meter while we explore whether settlement makes sense. The assessment phase is scoped, the next phase is scoped, and at each transition you decide whether the math still works.

If the matter does reach pleadings, motion practice, and trial preparation — each of those is its own phase fee, written into the engagement letter before the work begins. You always know what the next phase costs before it starts.

Plaintiff versus defense — both fit the model

On the plaintiff side, the assessment phase is where we test whether the claim has the merit, damages, and recoverability to justify the litigation spend. Many matters end at assessment with a recommended demand letter rather than a complaint.

On the defense side, the assessment phase is where we test the complaint's weaknesses — pleading defects, statute-of-limitations issues, factual gaps that summary judgment could exploit. Defense matters often run motion-heavy (demurrer/MTD, MSJ when appropriate) before discovery.