Year of call: 2024
Martha Garcia is a member of the Business and Property team, having successfully completed her pupillage under the supervision of Martin Budworth and Jonathan Fletcher‑Wright.
She accepts instructions across the full spectrum of Business and Property work, with a particular focus on commercial litigation, corporate and personal insolvency, property disputes, and construction matters.
Before commencing pupillage, Martha worked at two global law firms within commercial real estate and construction teams, supporting landlords and developers on high‑value transactions.
Martha is fluent in Spanish and welcomes instructions involving a Spanish‑language element.
Commercial litigation forms the core of Martha’s practice. She acts in a wide range of contractual and business disputes, including debt recovery, sale of goods and supply of services claims, breach of warranty claims, and issues of contractual construction and interpretation.
She has a busy paperwork practice and is regularly instructed to draft pleadings, advise on liability and quantum, and prepare applications across the Business and Property remit. Her advocacy experience spans interim applications, trials and appeals. During her pupillage, she gained particular experience advising on and acting in strike‑out and summary judgment applications from inception through to final hearing.
Martha also advises and represents clients throughout the enforcement process, having successfully obtained charging orders and orders for sale against judgment debtors, and secured the return of goods wrongfully seized under a writ of control.
Martha has a broad and developing practice in property litigation. She regularly appears in possession lists, acting predominantly for landlords and mortgagees. Her advisory and drafting work spans easement and boundary disputes, adverse possession, claims in trespass, as well as applications for equitable accounts and orders for sale under TOLATA 1996.
Martha welcomes instructions in landlord and tenant matters, both residential and commercial. She has experience of forfeiture proceedings and has previously been successful in obtaining an interim injunction in the High Court on behalf of a tenant, allowing it to take back possession of its commercial premises.
Martha has a particular interest in matters at the intersection of property and insolvency. Her work includes issues arising from the disclaimer of onerous property, providing tactical advice to landlords dealing with insolvent or dissolved tenant companies, and identifying the most effective possession and debt‑recovery routes where occupiers have entered liquidation.
Martha’s insolvency practice is rapidly expanding, and she is regularly instructed by creditors, debtors, office‑holders and companies across a wide range of corporate and personal insolvency matters.
Her experience includes:
Martha’s company law experience includes applications under s.306 Companies Act 2006, advising on directors’ duties, and disputes arising from share purchases. She also drafts pleadings and advises on claims involving misfeasance, fiduciary duties and the improper management of company assets. During her first six, she gained considerable exposure to shareholder disputes, including observing a six‑day trial of an unfair prejudice petition at the Business and Property Courts in Manchester.
Martha has experience drafting pleadings and advising on a range of construction disputes. She has appeared in the Technology and Construction Court in adjudication enforcement proceedings and is steadily expanding her work in this specialist area.
She is currently junior counsel to Andrew Singer KC, acting for claimants in a construction dispute valued at approximately £8 million, involving allegations of breach of contractual and tortious duties.
