Our Team

Candice Owens, Partner

Candice is a corporate and securities attorney specializing in entity formation, corporate governance, contracts, capital raising, asset transfers, and corporate restructuring.  She is a native of Northern California. Candice graduated magna cum laude from Santa Clara University School of Law, where she was Senior Articles Editor for the Santa Clara Computer & High Technology Law Journal. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, San Diego.

Candice was the founder of The Owens Law Firm, P.C., a dedicated corporate and business law practice in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Prior to opening her own firm, Candice was an attorney and partner at Sommer, Udall, Sutin, Hardwick & Hyatt, P.A. in Santa Fe.  In California, she worked at Cooley LLP (Palo Alto) in the corporate securities group. In between law careers, Candice owned a boutique in downtown Santa Fe called “Miss Maybe”. Before co-founding Blackgarden Law, she was a partner at Leverage Legal Group, a multi-office virtual law firm. Candice lives in Albuquerque with her husband and two daughters. In her spare time, she is a Spinning instructor, skier, and fitness enthusiast.

Education

SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
Juris Doctor, Magna Cum Laude 2000

UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
Communication, 1994

Activities & Affiliations
Creative Startups

Bar Admissions
New Mexico, California

Seth Gardenswartz, Partner

Seth began his career in his family's sporting goods business, a 80 year, multi-generational enterprise that ultimately expanded from Colorado to New Mexico and Texas. When the business was sold in 1995, Seth brought his experience and passion for technology and marketing to the practice of law. During law school, he wrote for SMU Law's International Journal and his paper, The Risk of Loss in Electronic Transactions, was published in the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology. He graduated Cum Laude from SMU Law School.

Seth's specialties include: trademarks, craft breweries, contracts, payment systems, e-commerce, digital media and general business management. In addition to practicing law, he's co-developer of a tech-flex office building in downtown Albuquerque and Co-owner of Surefi, a ad-tech company that combines proximity marketing with media targeting for mid-sized and regional brands in the craft beverage industry.  Seth has represented and advised entrepreneurs on branding-related legal issues for over 15 years. When not practicing law or marketing, Seth can be found roaming the trails of the mountain west on skis, bikes or running shoes.

Education

SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
Juris Doctor, Cum Laude 2000

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
B.S., Business, 1986

Activities & Affiliations
Brewers Association, Allied Trade Partner
Parker Center for Family Business, Board of Directors

Bar Admissions
New Mexico, Colorado

Distinctions
Named a Best Lawyers in America® "Ones to Watch" (2024)

Named a Best Lawyers in America® "Lawyer of the Year" in Trademark Law (2024)

Petra Facio, Legal Assistant

Petra was brought to the United States from Mexico and raised by her single mother. She became a US citizen in 2006. Petra was raised with the mentality that working hard, being loyal, and being persistent would always help her reach her goals.

She became a mother at a young age, so many of her career goals were put on hold, such as raising her children as a single parent with the help of her mother. Petra often worked three jobs to make ends meet. This exposure to multiple fields led her to understand that she enjoys caring for others.

The loss of her mother provided a focus on the elderly. Petra ultimately channeled her passion for elder care to caring for other clients who ultimately became like family to her. She proudly carries the morals, loyalty, humility, and sense of humor her mother instilled and now shares it with her peers, children, and grandchildren. Petra enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, reading books, and watching movies.

Petra's presence in the Blackgarden Law office makes every day a pleasure and makes BGL a better place to practice law.

Liz Natal Tonigan, Senior Associate

Liz Natal Tonigan is from Tennessee, where she earned her law degree (from the University of Tennessee College of Law) and an undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University.

Liz's practice includes intellectual property law and entertainment law. Liz has experience with copyright and trademark infringement, copyright and trademark registration and protection, contract disputes, and royalty disputes, and has assisted with a broad range of issues arising in the entertainment industry.

Prior to joining Blackgarden Law, Liz worked as an entertainment and intellectual property litigator for a law firm in Nashville, Tennessee. She has been involved in high-profile entertainment and intellectual property cases throughout the country.

Liz is currently on the Board of the Intellectual Property Law Section of the State Bar of New Mexico. When Liz is not practicing law, she enjoys spending time with her husband and taking their two pups for walks.

Education

UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE COLLEGE OF LAW
Juris Doctor, 2015

VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
B.A., Public Policy, 2011

Activities & Affiliations
IP Section of New Mexico Bar

Bar Admissions

New Mexico, Tennessee
U.S. District Court, District of New Mexico
U.S. District Court, Middle District of Tennessee

Distinctions
Named a Best Lawyers in America® "Ones to Watch" (2023-2024)

Luke Batty, Senior Associate

Luke Batty is both an Albuquerque and digital native. He left New Mexico to pursue a dual bachelor’s degree in Communications and Guitar Performance from Gonzaga University, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2016.

Luke traded in his time practicing guitar for reading casebooks in Silicon Valley at the Santa Clara University School of Law. Through Santa Clara’s Entrepreneurial Law Clinic, he provided free legal services to Silicon Valley start-ups. There, Luke rediscovered the creative energy that drove him as a musician -in small businesses, entrepreneurs, and tech start-ups. He finished law school with a certificate in High Tech Law. In 2019, Luke “boomeranged” back home to New Mexico to work as an attorney in Albuquerque's developing tech industry. Luke strives to combine his interests in communications, music, and law. As Senior Production Editor of his school’s High Tech Law Journal, he published a comment detailing the effects of broadband regulation on copyright holders and niche music genres. Now that he is back home in the Southwest, Luke spends his time fishing, hiking, and playing guitar.

Education

SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
Juris Doctor, Cum Laude
High Tech Law Certificate
with Honors, 2019

GONZAGA UNIVERSITY
B.A., Communications Studies
and Guitar Performance
Summa Cum Laude, 2016

Bar Admissions
New Mexico, Maryland

Talia Kosh, Of Counsel

Talia is an attorney in Santa Fe specializing in entertainment law, contracts, nonprofit and foundation formation and governance and employment discrimination. Talia was raised in Santa Fe and graduated from Loyola School of Law in New Orleans where she wrote for the Public Interest Law Journal. Talia received her Bachelor of Arts from College of Charleston, South Carolina in Political Science and Spanish.

Talia has been an attorney with the Bennett Law Group in Santa Fe since 2005, and is a partner in a nonprofit compliance service, Start Good!. Talia was a member of the Governor’s Council of Film and Media Industries from 2015 to 2021 and two-time Chair of the Intellectual Property Section of the NM Bar. Talia received the 2014 Santa Fe Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts for her work with New Mexico Lawyers for the Arts. Talia lives in Santa Fe and is a musician, singer-songwriter and loves to dance tango and ski.

Education

LOYOLA SCHOOL OF LAW
Juris Doctor, 2002

WASHINGTON COLLEGE OF LAW
Masters of Law, International Law 2003

Activities & Affiliations
IP Section of New Mexico Bar
Little Globe
New Mexico Lawyers for the Arts
Adjunct Professor, Santa Fe Community College (2014- 2019)

Bar Admissions
New Mexico, Maryland