Antonio L. Cortés has over thirty years of civil and business litigation experience, and has litigated numerous real estate disputes in California, Palau, and Guam. His extensive experience in real estate involves cases concerning title, deed validity, ejectment, partition, lease rights, cancellation of instruments, claims for public lands, easement and access rights, boundaries, mechanics liens, mortgage fraud, commercial leases, equitable liens, mortgage foreclosure, purchase agreements, nuisance, flood liability, and toxic mold liability. Mr. Cortés has also litigated intellectual property rights, corporate issues such as dissolution and shareholder rights, securities fraud, and employment issues such as unlawful termination and wage and hour disputes. Additionally, Mr. Cortés has litigated cases involving public fiduciary duty, nonfeasance, freedom of information, defense contracting, private entity claims, constitutional interpretation, separation of powers, interstate boundaries, international treaties, intergovernmental transactions, government negligence, and sovereign immunity. He has tried over thirty cases, and has obtained large jury verdicts, including a multi-million dollar punitive damage award. He has significant experience with Bay Area real estate development.
Mr. Cortés began his legal career in the Bay Area with national law firms – Irell & Manella and then Fenwick & West. In addition to practicing law in the United States, Mr. Cortés is licensed and has practiced in Guam and the Republic of Palau. As General Legal Counsel for the Palauan State of Koror, he successfully litigated title to over half the land in that State, and prepared leases for the extensive land holdings the Koror State Public Lands Authority acquired as a result of that litigation. Mr. Cortés also handled several cases that defined fundamental aspects of the Palau Constitution. In February 2021, he was appointed Part-Time Justice to the Trial Division of the Palau Supreme Court, a position Mr. Cortés still holds.
Mr. Cortés holds an A.B. from University of California Berkeley (with Highest Honors, Highest Distinction in General Scholarship, and the Departmental Citation), and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
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