Clients Dealing With Insolvency and/or Liquidity Crises

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Represents The Roman Catholic Bishop of Santa Rosa, a corporation sole, in its Chapter 11 case.

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Represents The Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco, a corporation sole, in its Chapter 11 case.

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Represented Nations First Capital, LLC in its chapter 11 reorganization case.  Successfully confirmed a plan of reorganization allowing the company to exit bankruptcy with a plan to pay over $35 million to its creditors.

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Represented The Roman Catholic Bishop of Stockton, a corporation sole, in its chapter 11 case.  Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization confirmed on January 10, 2017.

 

Represented Cha Cha Enterprises, Inc. in its chapter 11 reorganization with related debtor Mi Pueblo San Jose, Inc.  Successfully confirmed a plan of reorganization allowing both companies to exit bankruptcy with over $55 million of exit financing, preserving approximately 3,000 jobs in the Hispanic grocery store industry.

 

Represented a publicly traded bank holding company Capital Corp of the West in a chapter 11 case after the appointment of the FDIC as receiver for its wholly owned subsidiary bank County Bank of Merced.  County Bank of Merced had assets of almost $2 billion.  Capital Corp of the West had over $65 million of unsecured debt, made up mostly of trust preferred securities.  The chapter 11 case involved successfully confirming a liquidating plan and litigation in the bankruptcy court over the ownership of over $40 million of tax refunds and life insurance policies.  The resolution of the litigation resulted in distributions to creditors of over 24%.

 

Represented a publicly traded company Large Scale Biology Corp in a chapter 11 case involving substantial interests in intellectual property.  LSBC was a biotechnology company, founded in 1987 to use new methods of genetic engineering to produce pharmaceutical proteins and vaccines at a lower cost than is possible with traditional manufacturing methods.  The chapter 11 case involved evaluating the ability to reorganize and eventually led to the successful confirmation of a liquidating plan providing for an orderly liquidation of the company's intellectual property and resolving challenging issues involving assumption and assignment of license agreements.

 

Represented several bank holding companies in out-of-court wind down proceedings involving negotiations with the FDIC regarding ownership of tax refunds and claims resolutions.  These cases are in the process of resolving without the need for a bankruptcy filing, avoiding the costs and delays sometimes associated with bankruptcy.

 

Consulted with many businesses and litigation lawyers regarding the impact and alternatives of bankruptcy on existing business arrangements and litigation strategy.

 

Creditor Representation

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Represents numerous California state agencies as co-counsel with the California Attorney General's Office in the recent Pacific Gas & Electric bankruptcy case.

 

Represented the Creditors’ Committee in a reconverted chapter 11 bankruptcy case with over $95 million of debt.  The Creditors’ Committee obtained reconversion of the case from chapter 7 to chapter 11, confirmed a liquidation plan whereby the primary remaining real property asset was transferred to a California limited liability company for the purpose of attempting to exploit potential oil reserves for the benefit of creditors.

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Represented Sony Music Entertainment in the chapter 11 bankruptcy of Rdio, Inc., a worldwide digital music service company providing on demand music streaming.

 

Represented Grail Semiconductor in its initial chapter 11 bankruptcy case involving creditor claims to "bet the company" litigation settlement proceeds.

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Represented the Creditors’ Committee in a local dairy farmer's chapter 11 bankruptcy case.  The case involved the sale of over $10 million of real property to fund the payment in full of all creditors, including interest.

 

Acted as co-counsel with the California Attorney General's Office in representing numerous California state agencies regulating the timber industry in the Pacific Lumber bankruptcy case in Corpus Christi, Texas.  The case resulted in the sale of the debtor's assets to Humboldt Redwood Company, an affiliate of Mendocino Redwood Company.  The case involved potential challenges to the state regulatory scheme of the timber industry, but resulted in pass through treatment with regard to the state agencies' claims and regulatory authority.

 

Represented the California Housing Finance Agency in the Residential Capital bankruptcy case in the Southern District of New York.  The case involved the successful assumption and assignment of CalHFA's servicing and loan agreements by GMAC to Ocwen Financial Corporation in connection with a $3 billion sale of Res Cap's loan and servicing portfolios.

 

Represented the California Housing Finance Agency in the Pasadena Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc. bankruptcy case in the Central District of California.  The case involved the sale of a senior affordable housing complex, the payment in full of CalHFA and the retention of the regulatory restrictions on the property to ensure future availability of affordable senior housing at the complex.

 

Represented The McClatchy Company, a media company that owns numerous newspapers across the United States, as a creditor and/or defendant in preference actions, claim objections, and sales of substantially all of a debtor's assets involving the assumption and assignment of executory contracts in numerous jurisdictions including bankruptcy courts in New York, Virginia, Delaware, Texas, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama.

 

Represented Pacific Coast Producers, a local fruit processor and supplier, in connection with the Snokist chapter 11 bankruptcy case in the Eastern District of Washington.  Snokist was a non-profit cooperative association operating a cannery business under which it purchased fruit from both member and non-member growers and processed that fruit into a variety of different products, including applesauce and canned pears.  PCP was the successful highest bidder for inventory and accounts in connection with a $26 million sale of substantially all of Snokist's assets.

 

Represented landlords as creditors in national cases involving the assumption and assignment of leases, cure amount disputes, and claim objections.

 

Represented a local credit union in small chapter 7 and 13 cases involving vehicle, fixture and residential housing loans.

 

Trustees and Receivers

 

Represents Elli M.A. Mills, JD, MBA, as receiver in the United States District Court, District of Nevada, Las Vegas Division.  Mr. Mills was appointed receiver over 338 acres of undeveloped land located in Placer County.  This case came out of the USA Commercial Mortgage Company bankruptcy case.  The property is being marketed for sale with the goal of returning some recovery to lenders who at one point had lost all of their $33 million investment.

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Represented Randy Sugarman as receiver for VPL, Inc., a trucking company operating out of Lodi, California.  Mr. Sugarman was appointed on the motion of Loanvest, the secured lender owed over $2.9 million.  Through the receivership, Mr. Sugarman liquidated all of the personal property and acted as receiver while Loanvest conducted a judicial foreclosure on real property and obtained a deficiency judgment.  Mr. Sugarman also was able to make claims against 401(k) bonds to recover $2,335,000 of funds to pay to the 401(k) beneficiaries after the 401(k) plan assets disappeared under prior management.

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Represented chapter 11 trustee in gas station and convenience store case in Tahoe area presenting many challenging issues including environmental compliance.