Ward, John T.

Maureen Levine has devoted most of her 30 years in the legal field to the practice of real estate law. Maureen started her career as a law clerk in 1979, gaining unusually extensive experience in the law both before and during law school, prior to becoming an attorney in 1984. Maureen researched and drafted hundreds of complaints, motions, requests for injunctive relief, extraordinary writs, and appellate briefs in the California Courts of Appeal and Supreme Court, and in the federal appellate courts, through the entire appellate process. This work included briefing and all procedures representing the rights of property owners in the U.S. Supreme Court in the high-profile, precedent-setting, assumable loan “due-on-sale” case, Fidelity Federal S & L Ass’n v. de la Cuesta, 458 U.S. 141 (1982), which involved pivotal constitutional preemption issues.

Continuing her work in the law, during law school and after passing the bar in 1984, Maureen worked in various business litigation matters, including trade secret litigation, employment and labor law matters, legal malpractice, and various real estate cases, ultimately focusing her practice primarily on the representation of manufactured housing owners (mobilehome park owners). Her work in this field has covered diverse issues in landlord-tenant law, including high stakes, multi-party premises liability (“failure-to-maintain”) lawsuits, ground lease issues and mobilehome park closures, unlawful detainers, rent control, management issues, park development, as well as the drafting of residency documents (leases and rules/regulations), and the defense of Fair Housing and other discrimination claims.

Maureen has always maintained diverse experience in other areas of the law, ranging from labor disputes, general landlord-tenant matters, habitability issues, real estate sale disputes, workers’ compensation defense, insurance bad-faith litigation, land use, construction contractor litigation, to the drafting of contracts and other legal documents, and some basic bankruptcy and anti-trust matters. In all of this legal work, Maureen has conducted hundreds of depositions and countless trials. She prides herself in combining ethics and professionalism with aggressive and zealous representation. Maureen also assists clients by advising them on the legal aspects of their day-to-day business operations.

During her career, Maureen has participated in other precedent-setting appellate cases, successfully fighting for the interests of property owners in the high-profile cases, Panko v. Pan American S & L Ass’n (1981) 119 Cal. App. 3d 916, vacated 458 U. S. 117; Dawn v. Superior Court (1982) 30 Cal. 3d 695; Garber v. Fullerton S & L Ass’n (1981) 122 Cal. App. 3d 423; as well as successfully representing the school district in another high-profile case involving constitutional challenges to medical fee regulation in Ameri-Medical Corporation v. W.C.A.B. (Rhooms) (1996) 42 Cal. App. 4th 1260. She also worked with the team representing the property owners in rent control challenges in Carson Mobilehome Park Owners Ass’n v. City of Carson (1983) 35 Cal. 3d 184 and Oceanside Mobilehome Park Owners’ Ass’n v. City of Oceanside (1985) 157 Cal. App. 3d 887.

Maureen has been a member of the California State Bar since 1984, authorized to practice in all courts throughout the State of California. Maureen is also a member of and authorized to practice in all federal courts in the State of California, the Northern, Eastern, Southern and Central U. S. District Courts, and the Ninth Circuit U. S. Court of Appeals. Maureen has taught the subject Trusts at her Alma Mater, Western State University College of Law and received various awards in law school, graduating sixth in her class of one hundred twelve. She majored in Russian language, history, and literature in her undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.