Chip White

Chip White is a business litigator, focusing his practice on financial services, real estate, and commercial disputes.  He has represented clients in all phases of litigation in state and federal courts, administrative tribunals, mediations, and arbitrations.

Before attending law school, Mr. White was a legislative aide in the State Capitol from 1997 to 2000.  After graduating from law school, Mr. White clerked for U.S. District Court Judge William B. Shubb in the Eastern District of California from 2003 to 2004.  Mr. White’s background provides an added dimension to the counsel and legal services offered to clients.  He not only knows how to apply his knowledge of the law, but also understands how government works and what approaches may be most effective with each client’s particular situation. 

Mr. White has extensive experience assisting financial services providers including mortgage lenders, brokers, servicers, and other financial institutions, in matters involving:

• Secured loans, including foreclosure, receivership, guaranty enforcement, as well as lender liability and bad faith claims.
• Lending practices, Truth in Lending Act, Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, and other federal and state claims in connection with trustee sales and the foreclosure process.
• Mortgage banking, private mortgage insurance, consumer finance, and banking operations.  

Mr. White also has significant experience in real estate litigation representing owners, developers, landlords, tenants, and other clients in disputes involving:

• Purchase/sale contracts and options, including acquisition, specific performance and escrow matters, as well as rescission and other fraud/mistake claims. 
• Title matters, including bona fide purchaser/encumbrancer status, lien and ownership priority, and easement rights.
• Unlawful detainer and lease enforcement, homeowners association law, and broker commission agreements.

Mr. White has additional experience in commercial litigation including:

• Trademark infringement, trade secrets, franchise and distribution law, antitrust, trade regulation, unfair competition, and class actions.
• Business torts, fraud, contract claims, bad faith, employment, disputes with administrative agencies, and officer and director liability.
•  Insurance coverage disputes and assisting policyholders in obtaining coverage, including defense and liability costs.

Mr. White’s representative cases include:

• Won a large usury case for a well-known mortgage lender and recovered $500,000 in interest that the lender had forgiven in a previous usury settlement with the same borrower. 
• Successfully defended 17 property owners in an action by a homeowners’ association (HOA) which sought to prohibit the owners from subdividing a parcel of land.  Defeated the HOA’s summary judgment motion and then filed the owners’ summary judgment motion which caused the HOA to dismiss its complaint.  Awarded $225,000 in attorneys’ fees. 
• Obtained early dismissal of a class action against a franchisor by a 15 franchisees in four states.  After acknowledging that it is rare to dispose of class action allegations so early in the proceedings, the court dismissed the entire action with prejudice. 
• Represented a franchisor when a franchisee violated an arbitration award requiring it to turn over possession of a restaurant and even tried to re-brand the restaurant.  Within a day of filing a court action, secured a court order to stop the re-branding and, within two weeks, secured a final judgment ordering the franchisee to turn over possession of the restaurant.  When the franchisee still refused, obtained a writ of execution and quickly secured the franchisor’s possession of the restaurant.