Brian C. Carter

Mr. Carter has been in private practice in California since 1989, and in Ukiah since 1994. His practice is broad but emphasizes real property and general business/commerce, including both litigation and transactions. Brian has extensive experience in drafting and negotiating contracts for the purchase, sale and/or leasing of real property, and the formation, operation and dissolution of corporations, LLC’s, partnerships and other business entities. He has more than 33 years of experience litigating real property disputes about co-ownership, boundaries, easements, water rights and various other matters. He has advised clients and corresponded extensively with relevant parties/actors regarding land use and development, permitting and subdivisions. Mr. Carter’s litigation experience includes dozens of trials, including jury trials, and extensive motion practice (including anti-SLAPP motions), touching upon many issues, including receiverships, inverse condemnation, developer fees and much more. Mr. Carter is a skilled and experienced trial attorney, and he also has extensive experience litigating in the California appellate courts (including the Cal. Supreme Court).

With the benefit of more than 33 years of litigation experience, Mr. Carter believes that litigation is rarely the best answer, and that early mediation often provides clients with an opportunity to save a great deal of money while achieving a result that is at least acceptable. Where litigation cannot be avoided, however, Brian is experienced and exceptionally capable at bringing a case to trial and presenting the clients and the evidence in the best possible light to the jury and/or judge. Mr. Carter’s calm, confident and down to earth approach to any case helps clients make good decisions and maximizes their chances in court. Mr. Carter and Carter Rich strive to provide excellent legal representation at rates that are affordable for all clients.

Brian is a native Northern Californian, born at Stanford University, graduating from High School in Ukiah, receiving his BA in Economics from U.C. Berkeley in 1982 (he was in the stands for “The Play” that ended the 1982 Big Game), and graduating from Martin Luther King, Jr., School of Law at the University of California at Davis in May 1988 (Order of the Coif, Am Jur award in Corporate Taxation). Mr. Carter clerked for Justice Daniel A. Moore, Jr., on the Alaska Supreme Court in Anchorage for one year, and then practiced law as an associate for Jones, Day, Reavis and Pogue in Los Angeles and Irvine, California from 1989 through 1992. Mr. Carter opened his own practice in Irvine in 1993 and 1994, and moved to Ukiah in late 1994 to join the firm of his father, Jared G. Carter, who was Outstanding Graduate of the Year from Stanford Law School in 1962 and was a law clerk in 1962-63 for U. S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. Brian has been based in Ukiah from 1994 to the present; his practice extends to Sonoma, Lake, Humboldt, Marin, San Francisco, Colusa, Glenn and other counties in Northern California. Brian has served for many years on the boards of directors of multiple nonprofit corporations, including Redwood Community Services, Inc, River Oak Charter School, Mendocino College Foundation, Ukiah Main Street Program and Head Start. Brian has two adult daughters and a son still in high school, and he lives in Ukiah with his wife Natasha. In his free time, Brian likes to golf, read history, lift weights, go to Warriors, Giants and 49’ers games, camp/hike, play cards, and hunt.