William A. Markham

William Markham is a trial lawyer based in San Diego who litigates and tries antitrust matters and other complex commercial matters throughout California. He earned his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1987, passed the California Bar Examination on his first attempt, and became a litigator in the antitrust group of a global firm (Coudert Bros., now dissolved), working in its San Francisco office. He established his own practice in 1990 so that he could begin to try cases in court early in his career. He proceeded to try many small commercial and real estate disputes and learned how to try cases the old-fashioned, time-tested way -- by preparing his cases for trial and going to court to try them! Over time, he began to receive more substantial engagements and tried a few of them, obtaining successful results in vigorously contested business disputes. In 2001, he moved his office to San Diego and has maintained his operations there ever since while continuing to litigate cases elsewhere in California and on occasion elsewhere in the United States.

Since 2006, Mr. Markham has mostly specialized in antitrust work and other kinds of complex commercial matters. He has been the lead attorney in several national antitrust litigations and has also served as an antitrust advisor to various world-leading firms, including the world's largest manufacturer of LED products, a global manufacturer of automobiles, and one of the world's leading manufacturers of pulse oxymetry equipment. In court, he has won jury verdicts, bench trials, and important appellate victories, including three reversals on appeal, one of which he obtained in 2019 in the Ninth Circuit in a substantial antitrust matter. 

Mr. Markham has also written a series of well-received articles on antitrust law, trial procedures, and various other legal topics (posted at www.markhamlawfirm.com.law-articles), and he has frequently given commentary on various legal issues in national and regional media, including The NY Times, Bloomberg TV, KNSD, Voice of San Diego, and Univision, among others. He also served on the standards-setting committee of the San Diego County Lawyer Referral Association, helping to author several of the new standards for its different attorney panels. 

Mr. Markham relishes trying cases in court and prepares every case he accepts on the premise that he can obtain a better outome if he develops the case for trial from the outset. When possible, he tries to reach reasonable settlements, but if he appears in the case it means he is prepared to take it to trial. He accepts only a few engagements at a time so that he can devote sufficient attention to each case. You can read much more about Mr. Markham and his firm at www.marklawfirm.com.