Michael S. Martin

Mr. Martin’s practice emphasizes civil litigation including business disputes; commercial personal property and real property lease disputes; construction defect actions; commercial receivables and collections; and judgment enforcement.

Mr. Martin’s practice also focuses on construction law issues. Mr. Martin reviews and drafts commercial and residential construction agreements and assists contractors preserve their collection rights by preparing, filing and enforcing construction-related liens, bonds and stop notices. Additionally, Mr. Martin is experienced with resolving construction licensing issues and he represents general contractors, specialty contractors, heavy equipment lessors, and material suppliers in Federal and State Court litigation and in California State Licensing Board mediations and arbitrations.

Mr. Martin also has experience in code enforcement activities on behalf of the firm’s municipal clients. These activities include criminal prosecutions of municipal code violators and seeking civil remedies.

Community

Mr. Martin is admitted to practice before all State and Federal courts in California. He is a member of the California State Bar and the Ventura County Bar Association. Mr. Martin is active in the construction industry and currently sits on the State Board of Directors as the Director of Legislation for the California Landscape Contractors Association (CLCA), is a Board Member for LandPac, which is the political actions committee for the CLCA, is a member of the Ventura County Contractors Association; and is the Legislative Chair for the Board of Directors of the Channel Islands Chapter of the CLCA.

In 2013, 2014 and 2015, Mr. Martin was named “Rising Star” in the field of business litigation by Super Lawyers. This honor is awarded annually to no more than 2.5% of attorneys in Southern California who are under 40 years of age, or have been practicing law for less than 10 years and is based upon peer voting.

In February 2015, Mr. Martin was awarded as CLCA’s “2014 Associate Member of the Year.” He is also a Board Member of the Ventura Rotary Club East, serving as their Youth Services Chair.

Education

Mr. Martin earned his B.A. from Abilene Christian University in 1991 and his M.Div. from Princeton Seminary in 1994. He is fluent in Portuguese which he learned while he and his wife worked in Brazil with a non-profit organization for five and a half years. Upon returning to the United States from Brazil, Mr. Martin joined the firm as a clerk, began studying law, and earned his law degree from Ventura College of Law in 2004.