Education

Law School/Year: Harvard Law School, 1981

College/Year: Loyola Marymount University, 1978

Bar Admissions

California; U.S. District Court, Central and Eastern Districts of California; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; U.S. Supreme Court

Practice Areas

Business Litigation, Civil Litigation, Corporate Business, Labor, Real Estate     

Major Cases

In 1994, Bonifacio Bonny Garcia was retained as lead defense counsel by the Los Angeles Unified School District in a 64,000-plaintiff class action suit, Chanda Smith v. LAUSD. For more than five years, Garcia managed complex litigation that reorganized delivery of all school district special education services.

In 1996, Bonifacio Garcia completed a defense victory for Los Angeles Unified School District in a $400 million faults claim litigation in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals known as Hopper v. LAUSD.

In 2004, Garcia and his team also achieved the first appellate victory for a public school district against a charter school district for the Centinela Valley High School District. It was the first case to rule on the applicability of the Department of Education dictating the process for obtaining and requesting shared facilities usage.

Professional Background

Garcia is a founding partner of GCR LLP. After receiving his law degree from Harvard Law School, Garcia began his legal career as a commercial litigator. He has spent more than 12 years representing financial institutions in real estate and complex litigation matters. Garcia has extensive experience representing governmental entities, school districts and cities. He currently serves as general counsel to the Sweetwater Union High School District and the Garvey School District.

Professional Affiliations

Garcia served as adjunct professor of legal history at Loyola Marymount University and on the board of advisers of the Skirball Institute on American Values. He serves on the board of trustees for Marymount College in Palos Verdes and on the board of directors, Advancement Project and Opus Caritatis. Garcia also authored of "The Uses of History in Law: Some Aspects of the Process," 92/93 Law and Justice 127, Hilary/Easter.