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Steven R. Garcia Knapp, Petersen & Clarke 500 N. Brand Boulevard, 20th floor Glendale, CA 91203-1904 |
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STEVEN RAY GARCIA
Mr. Garcia, a director with the firm, received his bachelor of arts degree from Claremont McKenna College in 1979 and his juris doctor degree from the UCLA School of Law in 1983. He has also received intensive mediation training at the prestigious Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law.
Upon his admission to the California State Bar in 1983, Mr. Garcia joined Levinson & Lieberman, Inc., in Beverly Hills, where he spent three years almost exclusively doing title insurance and escrow defense work. He then joined Caldwell & Toms, Inc., in 1987, where he worked with the firm’s construction and business litigation team. In 1988, he moved to the national law firm of Peterson & Ross, where he took charge of the firm’s title insurance practice and headed the firm’s appellate group in Los Angeles. He has also worked for the legal division of the California Association of Realtors.®
Since joining Knapp, Petersen & Clarke in 1994, Mr. Garcia has continued his work in the firm’s title insurance practice group, representing clients in Los Angeles, Orange, and Ventura counties. His practice also includes cases involving real estate broker errors and omissions, environmental insurance coverage, and other issues related to real property law.
Mr. Garcia’s work has included authoring the brief liberally quoted by the Court of Appeal in Orr v. Byers, 198 Cal. App. 3d 666 (1987) [holding that a misspelled name on a recorded document does not impart constructive notice]; handling the oral argument of Allstate Insurance Company v. Interbank Financial Services, 215 Cal. App. 3d 825 (1989) [holding that securities fraud claims are not covered under a comprehensive general liability insurance policy]; and obtaining the successful reversal of the erroneous judgment in Gardner Solder Co. v. SupAlloy Corp., Inc., 232 Cal. App. 3d 1537 (1991) [holding that an out-of-state corporation that has failed to qualify to do business in California may obtain restitution, even if its contract was rescinded].
Mr. Garcia coauthored the chapter on Ownership Transfer in The Real Estate Handbook, Second Edition (1990, Dow Jones-Irwin). He has written several articles for various legal and real estate publications. In addition, he has lectured to escrow, real estate, surety and title insurance groups and has taught Legal Aspects of Real Estate at a Southern California college. From time to time he sits as a temporary judge in the Los Angeles Superior Courts, and he serves as a mediator privately and on behalf of the Los Angeles Superior Court. In 2001, Mr. Garcia was appointed to the Planning Commission of the City of South Pasadena, and in 2003, he was elected its chairman, a position he held until he stepped off of the Commission in October 2005.
- Areas Of Practice:
- Title insurance law
- Insurance law
- Real estate law
- Errors and omissions insurance
- Environmental law
- Bar Admissions:
- California, 1983
- U.S. District Court Central District of California, 1985
- U.S. District Court Southern District of California, 1990
- U.S. Federal Court, 1985
- U.S. Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit
- Education:
- University of California at Los Angeles School of Law, Los Angeles, California, 1983
- Juris Doctor
- Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, California, 1979
- B.A.
- Published Works:
- “Community Property With the Right of Survivorship: Only Your Heir Dresser Knows for Sure,” April/May/June 2001 edition of the California Escrow Association Newsletter
- “Good Riddance to Affirmative Action,” October 1997 State Bar Journal
- Chapter, “Ownership Transfer” (Coauthor), Real Estate Handbook, 2nd Edition, 1990
- “Reflections on Droeger and (un)Family Code,” Real Property Newsletter of the Los Angeles County Bar Association
- Brief, Orr v. Byers, 198 Cal. App. 3d 666 (1988)
- Representative Cases:
- Allstate Insurance Company v. Interbank Financial Services, 215 Cal. App. 3d 825 (Cal. Ct. of App. 4th Dist. 3rd Div. 1989)
- Gardner Solder Co. v. SupAlloy Corp., Inc., 232 Cal. App. 3d 1537 (Cal. Ct. of App. 2nd Dist. 1991)
- Orr v. Byers, 198 Cal. App. 3d 666 (1998)
- Classes/Seminars Taught:
- Taught “Legal Aspects of Real Estate”
- Presenter, “Escrow Update: Recent Cases & Hot Topics,” Title Insurance Subsection of the Los Angles County Bar Association
- “Reflections on Droeger & The (un) Family Code,” L.A. County Bar Title Insurance Subsection
- Past Employment Positions:
- Levinson & Lieberman, Inc., Beverly Hills, 1983 - 1987
- Caldwell & Toms, Inc., 1987 - 1988
- Peterson & Ross, 1988 - 1994
- California Association of Realtors, Legal Division
- Languages:
- English
- French
- Spanish
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20th Floor
Glendale, CA 91203
Phone: (818) 547-5000 or (323) 245-9400
Fax: (818) 547-5329