Education
J.D. Hastings College of Law, University of California, 1991
B.A. University of California, Berkeley, Political Science and Economics, 1988
Bar Admissions
California
Court Admissions
all courts of the State of California
U.S. District Court, Eastern District
U. S. District Court, Northern District
Ninth Circuit District Court of Appeal
Affiliations
State Bar of California, Business Law, Environmental Law, Litigation, Real Property Law Sections
Sacramento County Bar Association, Environmental Law and Real Property Sections
Urban Land Institute
Northern California SuperLawyers, 2004, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011
Anthony M. Kennedy Chapter of the Inn of Court since 1998
Barristers Club of Sacramento, former President
Louis A. Gonzalez, Jr.
- Contact information:
- Shareholder
- lgonzalez@weintraub.com
- T: 916.558.6105
- F: 916.446.1611
- download v-card
Practice Areas
Louis is a shareholder and chair of the firm’s Litigation group. As a trial lawyer, Louis has tried over thirty jury trials to verdict. He has also tried numerous court trials and binding arbitrations to decision. Louis began his legal career as a trial deputy with the Sacramento County District Attorney’s office, where he handled several high-profile cases. Louis joined the firm in 1993 and has represented clients in an array of business and real estate disputes.
Louis represents commercial developers and landowners in a wide range of real estate and environmental disputes. Louis has developed extensive experience in all areas of real estate litigation, including land sale contracts, due diligence, disclosure, option and partnership, commercial landlord/tenant disputes, and master planned communities. Louis also represents owners in disputes between co-owners and adjacent landowners in partition, easement, boundary and other proceedings affecting title. Louis also represents owners in disputes with state, county and local entities relating to subdivisions, land use, zoning, eminent domain, and environmental issues. Louis regularly speaks at continuing education seminars on topics related to his real estate practice.
Louis’ environmental experience includes counseling owners and operators of solid waste facilities concerning regulatory compliance and negotiating with the state, regional and local enforcement agencies. Louis has extensive experience in related administrative and state court proceedings pertaining to cease and desist orders, cleanup and abatement orders and waste discharge requirements for landfills, transfer stations and recycling operations.
Additionally, Louis counsels broker, developer and lender clients in DRE compliance and represents them in regulatory proceedings initiated by the Department of Real Estate, including negotiating settlements, serving as trial counsel, and handling appeals.
Louis was selected for inclusion in Northern California SuperLawyers for 2004, 2007, 2009 and 2010.
Community Involvement
Committed to the legal community, Louis has been an active member of the Sacramento County Bar Association where he has served on the Bar Council. He served on the Sacramento County Judicial Evaluation Committee from 1998 through 2005 and served as a delegate for the Sacramento County Bar to the State Bar of California’s Conference of Delegates.
When Louis and his wife have the opportunity, they enjoy Sacramento’s outdoor activities with their two children. They especially enjoy running, cycling, hiking and skiing.
Representative Cases
Community Associations
Louis acts as general counsel to large Community Associations. Louis regularly counsels general mangers and Board members of variety issues from corporate governance issues, corporate compliance, CC&R enforcement and general liabilities and operations issues. Louis also regularly prosecutes and defends lawsuits on behalf of Associations and has been doing so for over 15 years.
Easement Litigation
Louis regularly counsel clients on easement disputes. He has prosecuted and defended a wide variety of easement disputes in the Tahoe Area. Louis has represented his client’s easement claims through trial to favorably outcomes and defended them on appeal. Nature of easements litigated: access, rights of way, horse trails, snowshoeing, wedding sites and views.
Cal Neva Resort
Successfully obtained prescriptive easements over neighboring owner's property for access to a scenic point for weddings and related activities. Louis also acquired easements for the Cal Neva for several encroaching structures and improvements located on adjoining properties. The case was extensively litigated and the easements and encroachments confirmed after a three week trial. The judgment in Cal Neva's favor was appealed and the firm successfully defended the judgment on appeal.
A Greener Globe v. Capitol Waste
In this action, Louis successfully defended a commercial tenant from its landlord’s efforts to terminate the tenant’s 99 leases year over a very desirable 25 acre commercial property in Roseville, CA which was formerly a landfill. Louis not only defended the action but was successful in prosecuting a cross-complaint against the landlord which resulted in an award of damages against the Landlord and an award of over $300,000 in attorney’s fees after a three week trial. Additionally, the Court ordered reformation of the leases requiring the leases to be consolidated on the terms most favorable to the tenant because Louis was able to establish that the Landlord violated the Subdivision Map Act. Louis was also successful in having the Court clarify and impose the environmental obligations on the Landlord.
Davis Ranches
This case involved the partition of more than 9,500 acres of prime agricultural real property and related interests in Colusa County. The real property was owned in varying interests by individual members of the Davis family for over 130 years. Various factions of the family wished to withdraw their interests in the Davis Ranches, while a core group of family members wished to preserve the family’s legacy and continue the ranching operation. The value of the real property and related interests was at the heart of this dispute.
Management of the Ranches is run by a committee of 7 family members. In addition to the real property, the dispute involved the division of water rights requiring the formation of a water company, mineral interests require the creating of a separate entity and the division of federal crop subsidies. The real estate issues involved to bring about the division of the land interests included compliance with the Subdivision Map, Parcel Map and lot line adjustments in order to create new legal parcels from the existing ranches. Additionally, easements were created to allow access between the newly created parcels and for the benefit of the water company.
Frank et al. v. UDC Homes, Shea Homes, et al.
In this case, Louis represented Shea Homes as the successor in interests to the prior developer, UDC Homes, in an action brought by the owners within a phase of the Villages Development, a large multiphase mixed housing development located in San Jose, California. Plaintiffs’ claimed that UDC, and their representatives, committed various acts of malfeasance in the course of the development of the phase, the DRE process and sales transactions, which damaged plaintiffs. Plaintiffs sought damages in excess of $4 million. Plaintiffs’ primary claim alleged that before UDC began selling lots in the phase, at the urging of the Master Association, the developer recorded a Declaration of Annexation which amended (the “Amendment”) the CC&Rs for detached home owner’s association. The Amendment provided that the 75 owners within the phase would be assessed 100 percent of the cost associated with the common areas expenses within the phase. Plaintiffs contended that the Amendment was in violation of the Master Association’s Bylaws which required that the maintenance costs for all properties owned by the Master Association be assessed equally among its 3500 members.
The Court conducted a bifurcated trial on the sole issue of whether UDC Homes had the right to record the declaration of annexation without the consent of the detached home owners, the Master Association or the membership. The Court ruled that UDC Homes, in fact, possessed the authority finding that the Declaration of CC&Rs reserved to the developer the right to revoke and amend an annexation of property. After Louis secured this favorable trial outcome, the plaintiff's claims were greatly diminished and the parties entered into settlements on mutually acceptable terms on the remaining claims.
