Law Offices of John C. Carpenter

Vincent W. Thorpe, Esq.

Mr. Thorpe has practiced law in California since 1960 starting as a Deputy Attorney General trying anti-trust, consumer fraud, and narcotics forfeiture cases and arguing criminal appeals. He was appointed supervising attorney for anti-trust trials in Southern California in 1962 and later was named an Assistant Attorney General in charge of statewide consumer fraud prosecutions. Since 1966 he has been in private practice primarily in business litigation and corporate transactional work as a partner with the firm of Thorpe and Thorpe, PC (and its predecessors).

At trial, Mr. Thorpe has recently won a $15 million judgment in a complex real estate joint venture fraud case. He has successfully defended business owners against fraud, unfair competition, anti trust and complex contract and class action claims and litigated the intricacies of real estate and construction development disputes. He has a distinguished record of success in the appellate courts.

While practicing, Mr. Thorpe has been an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School in Business Acquisitions and alternative business entities. He was the author of the Negotiating the Sale of a Business program in 1991 and a contributing author of Drafting Business Contracts: Principles, Techniques and Forms in 1994 and 1997 for the California Continuing Education of the Bar. He is the editor of the 1996 Annual Review of Business Law Developments for the Business Law Section of the State Bar. He also was the author of Protecting Future Ventures from Claims of Current Partners, Urban Land, January 1993. He has also lectured and written on problems of law office administration. He is a member of the Joint Advisory Committee to California's Continuing Education of the Bar program.

In addition to his trial and business transactions practice, Mr. Thorpe has served as an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association; a judge pro tem for the Los Angeles Municipal Court; an arbitrator on law firm disputes for the Los Angeles County Bar Association; and a consultant on legal malpractice issues.

Mr. Thorpe is a member of the business, litigation and legal economics sections of the American Bar Association. He serves as chairman of the education committee of the business law section of the California State Bar. He is a member of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers and the Los Angeles County Bar Association where he has at different times served on the Lawyers Assistance Committee, the Judicial Evaluation Committee and has been chairman of the Law Office Management Section and for several years was chairman of the Board of Governors of the Loyola Alumni Association from 1981 to 1982. The Irish American Bar Association awarded Mr. Thorpe its distinguished Daniel O'Conner Award for 1995.

Mr. Thorpe received his juris doctor degree from Loyola Law School, his bachelor's degree from Loyola Marymount University and did graduate work at the University of Bombay, India.