Paul M. Porter • Partner

One California Plaza
300 South Grand Avenue, 37th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90071

(213) 620-0460 [General]
(213) 624-4840 [Fax]  

Extended Bio

PAUL M. PORTER specializes in real property litigation and general business litigation. Mr. Porter received his Bachelor of Science degree from Loyola Marymount University in 1986, with a degree in Business Administration and an emphasis in Marketing. He obtained his Juris Doctorate from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, California in 1991. He joined Hill, Farrer & Burrill LLP immediately upon graduating from law school, and was admitted to the California Bar in 1991. He is admitted to practice in California, all of the districts of the United States District Courts in California, he is admitted to practice in the State of Wisconsin, and is a member of the Litigation and Real Property Sections of the California State Bar. He is a U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED Accredited Professional (LEED Green Assoc.).
 
He has extensive litigation, trial and arbitration experience in various real estate and business litigation areas, including eminent domain, shopping center issues (including lease disputes), real property transaction disputes, inverse condemnation, land use, property damage disputes, contract and business disputes, and environmental (CEQA) law.  He regularly represents plaintiffs as well as defendants in these disputes, and his clients include business entities of all kinds, individuals, private property owners and public agencies.  

Mr. Porter also has extensive experience in appellate practice, pursuing and responding to appeals involving a variety of topics, including a wide variety of real estate issues, eminent domain and inverse condemnation cases, professional legal malpractice claims, and Anti-SLAPP statute claims.  He tried the case and prosecuted the appeal that resulted in one of the California Real Property Journal’ s Top Ten Real Property Cases of 2003: Cuna Mutual Life Insurance Co.v. L.A. County MTA (2003) 108 Ca.App.4th 382, obtaining a $1.6 million dollar settlement for his client after the liability trial that followed the successful appeal.  He is also experienced in the prosecution and defense of appellate writs and defense of administrative claims against public agencies.

Mr. Porter also represents tenants and landlords in issues involving major commercial lease disputes, including shopping centers, and is an active member of the International Council of Shopping Centers.  He regularly participates in and has lead round table discussion at the ICSC’s annual Shopping Center Law Conference.  He has been a panel member at the Georgetown Advanced Commercial Leasing Institute, in Washington D.C. (he was a panelist in discussion of obligations between landlord and tenant in commercial shopping centers, the possibility of an implied duty in landlord to maintain synergy in the center, and the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing as it relates to this relationship).

Mr. Porter also represents clients, including property owners as well as contractors, in construction and land use related issues and litigation. He has represented contractors and subcontractors on major construction project issues and disputes, including zoning and land use issues, mechanics lien claims, foreclosure of mechanics lien litigation, lien priority claims, breach of construction contract disputes, and construction defect.
 
Mr. Porter currently represents clients in a variety of matters, and regularly participates in mediations to find creative ways to resolve disputes on behalf of his clients. He is a volunteer settlement officer in the Los Angeles Superior Court, Central District Voluntary Settlement Conference program.
 
Mr. Porter is active in his community, including various activities, fund raising and committees at the schools his three teenage children attend.  He has been a long time board member of the American Youth Soccer Association, Region 214 in South Pasadena, where he has coached his children and hundreds of others in soccer for more than a decade, and has been a board member and Assistant Commissioner there.  He is also a founding member of the advisory board and as legal counsel of the Pasadena Lacrosse League.