Criminal Law

• Fraud
  Spach, Capaldi & Waggaman, LLP understands the full scope of claims arising from real estate projects, including those for construction defects, breach of contract and fiduciary duty, guarantor liabilities, securities fraud, fraudulent transfers, and the entire range of strategies available in Chapter 11 proceedings. In addition, Spach, Capaldi & Waggaman, LLP’s practice extends to...

Business and Corporate Law

• Business Disputes
  Douglas S. Waggaman is a seasoned business litigator with a record of successful prosecution and defense in innumerable business disputes over more than thirty years. He began his legal practice with a highly-regarded West Los Angeles business firm, then moved to San Diego to join an established firm engaged in a wide variety of litigation. He and several long-time colleagues later founded Spach, Capaldi & Waggaman, LLP.
• Business Transactions
  Thomas E. Walling is a senior associate of Spach, Capaldi & Waggaman, LLP. With over twenty-seven years of business and legal experience combined, Mr. Walling has been deeply involved in commercial transactions, litigation, environmental and toxic tort matters, business management, engineering, regulatory and corporate compliance, and human resources law.
• Limited Liability Companies
  The firm’s practice runs across the spectrum of cutting-edge debt arrangements, including construction loans, permanent bank portfolio lending, insurance and pension-fund financing, and CMBS and other securitized loans, through every conceivable equity financing vehicle, from tenant-in-common arrangements, partnerships, and limited liability companies. The firm has mastered the most complex documentary provisions. Few lawyers have negotiated, documented, and closed more loans of so many types as ours. Beyond that, our lawyers understand the special concerns of the many types of borrowers, from large institutions to medium-sized entrepreneurial development groups.
• Construction Contracts
  Mr. Capaldi represents financial institutions and institutional and entrepreneurial developers, owners, and investors in challenging lending transactions, ground-up real estate development, workouts and restructurings, complex real-estate acquisitions and sales, and nearly every other class of real-property transaction. He is experienced with debt instrument sales and participations, limited liability company formation and partnerships, guarantor, foreclosure, and deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure issues, easements and covenants, management agreements, and construction contracts.
• Trade Secrets
• Unfair Competition
  Mr. Waggaman’s practice has spanned such diverse fields as construction (where he has represented owners, general contractors, and subcontractors), asset-based lending, shareholder dissension and corporate dissolutions, bankruptcy (primarily on behalf of creditors), software and technology, First Amendment, unfair competition, copyright, and real estate, both at the trial court and appellate levels.

Property Law

• Real Estate Litigation
  Madison S. Spach, Jr. is a founding member of the firm. A 35-year litigation veteran, Mr. Spach concentrates on complex and multi-forum business, construction, and real-estate litigation. He has represented owners, developers, lenders, borrowers, guarantors, general contractors, partners, officers, and directors in a wide variety of litigation, bankruptcy, and loan-workout matters, including internal owner disputes and accountings. He often deals with issues arising from accounting procedures and the potential liabilities of accounting firms.
• Construction Litigation
  In construction related matters, Mr. Spach has represented owners and developers in an extensive range of multi-family, commercial and non-residential construction disputes, including contract issues, consultant issues, delay claims, and contract administration claims.
• Real Estate Transactions
  Mr. Capaldi’s skills go beyond expertise in legal subtleties to the mastery of transactional structures, whether for institutional financings, complex workouts, commercial leasing, sophisticated acquisitions, or business entity organizations. He has closed hundreds of real estate transactions.
• Eminent Domain
  Mr. Walling’s practice emphasizes complex business litigation matters. He has represented accounting firms, aerospace manufacturers, sign companies, landlords, borrowers, creditors, real estate developers, general contractors, owners, partners, officers, and directors in a wide variety of litigation matters, including internal owner disputes, land use/eminent domain disputes, construction defect matters, breaches of leases, trademark disputes, environmental disputes, and general contract disputes.
• Easement
• Land Use and Zoning
• Condominium Law

Trusts and Estates

• Estate Planning
  In his business, commercial, and real-estate litigation practice, Mr. Tsu represents banks and borrowers, among others. Mr. Tsu also drafts documents for complex real-estate transactions and orchestrates major real-estate closings.

Finance Law

• Bankruptcy
• Foreclosure
  Valuation Litigation. A sharp decline in a property’s value can revive a very old lender’s strategy: judicial foreclosure. This move preserves a lender’s right to sue the borrower for amounts that cannot be collected after the far-more-common trustee’s sale. Spach, Capaldi & Waggaman, LLP litigates valuation cases involving raw and entitled land, single and multi-family projects, commercial buildings, office complexes, and shopping centers. We know the nuances of valuation methodologies in these contests.