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Carla García-Benítez has over twenty-years of experience in the civil litigation arena. In more recent years, however, her practice has been concentrated in three key areas: trademark law, environmental law litigation and tax litigation.
In the trademark area, Ms. García-Benítez actively supervises the process of obtaining both local and federal trademark registrations. She has also successfully pursued trademark infringers, by both non-judicial and judicial means, usually achieving the clients’ goals without the need of a costly trial. She is currently an active member of the Puerto Rico Bar Association Committee on Intellectual Property, and as such, provided some input to the Puerto Rico Trademark Act enacted in December of 2009.
In the area of environmental litigation, she was involved in an extensive administrative proceeding before the Environmental Quality Board involving a penalty claim for millions of dollars, which entailed approximately 70 evidentiary hearings over a period of two years, until such hearings were stayed by the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. In re: Esso Standard Oil Company (Puerto Rico), Cases no. OA-99-AG-109 and OA-01-AG-26. Thereafter, she has been involved in various on-going judicial proceedings representing ExxonMobil’s local affiliate, Esso Standard Oil Company (Puerto Rico), involving CERCLA and RCRA claims.
Moreover, Ms. García-Benítez has had many years of experience in working with our Corporate Tax partners in defending, at both the administrative and judicial level, tax deficiencies assessed by a variety of taxing authorities.
Even though these are her current strength areas, Ms. García-Benítez has had ample experience in other areas of the law as well. Upon her graduation from law school in 1987, she worked as an associate in our Litigation Department until 1989. During this brief period, she participated in a large variety of cases and issues, including the drafting of the appeal brief in Natal v. Christian & Missionary Alliance, 878 F.2d 1575 (1st Cir. 1989).
In 1989, Ms. García-Benítez moved to New York, NY, where she obtained her LL.M. in Trade Regulations from New York University, graduating in May 1990. Upon admission to the New York Bar in early 1991, she joined the International Trade Field Office, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice as a trial attorney. While working at the U.S. Department of Justice, Ms. García-Benítez represented the then U.S. Customs Service before the Court of International Trade, a federal court with nationwide jurisdiction. She was actively involved in the trial or summary disposition of such matters as: Vista Int'l Packaging Co. v. United States, 890 F. Supp. 1095 (C.I.T. 1995); China Diesel Imports v. United States, 870 F. Supp. 347 (C.I.T. 1994); Marubeni Am. Corp. v. United States, 821 F. Supp. 1521 (C.I.T. 1993), aff’d 35 F.3d 530 (Fed. Cir. 1994); Conoco, Inc. v. United States Foreign-Trade Zones Bd., 885 F. Supp. 257 (C.I.T. 1995); RICO Import Co. v. United States, 797 F. Supp. 1028 (C.I.T. 1992); Charles Jacquin et Cie, Inc. v. United States, 16 C.I.T. 49; 1992 Ct. Intl. Trade LEXIS 8; (1992); and Mitel, Inc. v. United States, 782 F. Supp. 1567 (C.I.T. 1992), among others. Ms. García-Benítez also appeared before the Federal Circuit Court to argue the U.S. Customs position in various cases including, ITT Corp. v. United States, 24 F.3d 1384 (1994); Lynteq, Inc. v. United States, 976 F.2d 693 (Fed. Cir. 1992); Central Soya Co. v. United States, 953 F.2d 630 (Fed. Cir. 1992); and E.T. Horn Co. v. United States, 945 F.2d 1540 (Fed. Cir. 1991).
Among her achievements in New York, Ms. García-Benítez completed a U.S. Department’s of Justice Trial Advocacy course in October 1991; received a Special Achievement Award in December 1992, and a Meritorious Award in December 1994. She was also a speaker at the United States Court of International Trade Ninth Judicial Conference held in Washington D.C. in 1994. Her contribution during that conference was published at XX Brooklyn J. of Int’l Law 577 (1995).
In 1995, Ms. García-Benítez moved back to Puerto Rico, and re-joined O’Neill & Borges as an associate. By 1997, she had become a special partner of the firm, and a year later, in 1998, she became partner of the firm. She also was the head of the Litigation Department from December 1, 2007 until March 31, 2010. During her tenure of now over fifteen years at O’Neill & Borges, she has been actively involved in a large number of cases involving a variety of topics, at the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rico local courts or administrative agencies. She has litigated complex cases involving antitrust issues, construction law claims, and dealer’s act issues [see, e.g, Patterson v. Ford Motor Co., 931 F. Supp. 98; 1996 (D.P.R. 1996)], among others.
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