Bankruptcy Practice: An In-Depth Guide (CA)

Moderators:

Dan Caine serves as bankruptcy counsel at Ryan Swanson & Cleveland and is a long time bankruptcy practitioner in the Seattle area. Mr. Caine's bankruptcy and creditors’ rights practice includes work in commercial loans and secured transactions, foreclosure of security interests and recovery of collateral, workouts of troubled loans, and bankruptcy cases. He represents commercial lenders, creditors’ committees, trustees in bankruptcy and debtors. Dan also practices in general corporate and business matters.

Mr. Caine is a frequent speaker at bankruptcy seminars in the Northwest, and is a contributor to various Bar publications, including the Washington State Bar News. He is a Washington Super Lawyer, and has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America. Mr. Caine served on the executive committee of the Washington State Bar Association's Creditor-Debtor Section for twelve years and spent two of those years as its Chairperson. Mr. Caine received his Law Degree from the University of California at Los Angeles and is admitted to practice in Washington and California.

Jeffrey Rehfeld is a partner in the Finance and Bankruptcy Practice Group in Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton’s San Francisco office.  Mr. Rehfeld specializes in commercial bankruptcy, representing debtors, creditors, creditors’ committees and trustees.  He is experienced in all aspects of business bankruptcy proceedings and is also experienced in the purchase and sale of assets of companies both in and out of bankruptcy and with loan workouts.  Mr. Rehfeld is a member of the State Bar of California and the Bar Association of San Francisco and is a former President of the Bay Area Bankruptcy Forum and a former member of the board of directors of the California Bankruptcy Forum.  He received his J.D. from Boalt Hall.  Upon graduating from law school, he served as a law clerk to bankruptcy judge Leslie Tchaikovsky in Oakland.

Faculty:

For the past 12 years, Audrey E. Gervasi has served as a career law clerk for a federal bankruptcy judge at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Western District of Washington at Tacoma and the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Ninth Circuit.  Prior to becoming a law clerk, Ms. Gervasi was an associate in private bankruptcy practice with a Seattle law firm.  Ms. Gervasi graduated from Seattle University School of Law, magna cum laude, in 1996, where she served as a Law Review Note and Comment Editor.

Deirdre’s practice focuses on the full range of debtor-creditor disputes, including the interests of secured and unsecured creditors, dischargeability, claims objections and workouts. She has successfully represented trustees in chapter 7 liquidations and state court receivers, and third parties whose interests need to be protected in bankruptcy or who seek to purchase assets out of these estates.

She also provides advice in all civil appeals at the state and federal level. Deirdre has a successful history working with trial counsel in the research and development of an appeal strategy, which is often best accomplished early in the litigation process to help preserve potential appellate issues.

Deirdre is a member of the Washington State Bar Association Creditor-Debtor Rights Section and the Washington State Bar Association Hearing Officer Panel, on which she hears disciplinary cases filed by the WSBA against attorneys. She is a Certified Mediator for Alternative Dispute Resolution under Civil Rule 39.1 and she regularly speaks and writes on Creditor-Debtor law for various publications and educational groups. Deirdre also served as Parliamentary Page for the Canadian House of Commons in 1982 and 1983.

Education: Carleton University (B.P.A., 1986); University of British Columbia (J.D., 1990).

Jennifer Taylor is an associate in O’Melveny's San Francisco office and a member of the Corporate Finance and Restructuring Practices.  Jennifer represents clients in secured and unsecured leveraged buyouts, debt restructurings, and other structured financings.  She has experience negotiating workout transactions and representing clients in Chapter 11 reorganizations and distressed acquisitions.

Ms. Taylor is a former law clerk for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of CA.  She received her undergraduate degree from Stanford University and her J.D., cum laude, from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law where she received the American Bankruptcy Institute Medal of Excellence.  She is the author of several articles on bankruptcy issues, including Sustaining Power: Applying 11 U.S.C. § 366 in Chapter 11 Post-BAPCPA, published in the Bankruptcy Developments Journal and Some Bargain: How Bankruptcy Courts May Now Require a Debtor to Relinquish Expectations of Privacy as a Condition of the Bankruptcy Bargain, published in the Hastings Law Journal.

Ron Mastroianni is currently a law clerk at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern Discrict of California, Oakland Division.  Ron initially clerked for Judge Newsome from 1993 to 1995, and currently from 2002 to the present.  Prior to clerking for Judge Newsome, Ron clerked for Judge Carl B. Rubin of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, served as a special master appointed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, taught as an adjunct law school professor, and was in private practice in the Bay Area.  He is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Law, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Peggy Brister has been a law clerk at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern California Discrict since 1994.  She assists a federal bankruptcy judge with the regular bankruptcy court docket and with the appellate caseload.  Prior to clerking, Peggy practiced in the commercial litigation section (with an emphasis on bankruptcy) of Jones, Walker in New Orleans, Louisiana.  A former Notes and Comments Editor at Southern Methodist University’s law school, Peggy appreciates clerking because it allows her to focus on her two favorite aspects of the practice of law: research and writing.

Neil Bason practices in the area of business reorganization and financial restructuring. Mr. Bason's practice encompasses representation of trustees, secured and unsecured creditors, entities contemplating or initiating bankruptcy cases or workouts, persons who seek to purchase assets out of bankruptcy and third parties whose interests need to be protected in distressed debt situations, including parties to contracts and leases with debtors in bankruptcy.

Prior to joining Duane Morris, Mr. Bason served for eight years as a law clerk to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali in the Northern District of California and Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Ninth Circuit.

During his tenure, he worked on approximately 70 BAP decisions and numerous trial court dispositions. Before clerking Mr. Bason was in private practice for a decade in Massachusetts and in the Bay Area, during which time he focused primarily on debtor-creditor disputes.

Following law school, Mr. Bason was a law clerk to Chief Justice Paul J. Liacos of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.

Selected Publications

•  "Directors' and Officers' Duties in Troubled Times," Howard Rice Private Client Services Newsletter, 2009
•  "Bankruptcy Sales: A Recent Decision Illustrates Some Risks And Opportunities," Business Law News, a publication of the California State Bar, 2009
•  "Risk Of Losing Your Initial Investment, And Risk of 'Clawbacks'—Having To Pay Back Any Distributions That You Received," Howard Rice Private Client Services Newsletter, 2009
•  "Recent U.S. bankruptcy court decision Highlights In-House Counsel Vulnerability," Howard Rice Client Alert Newsletter, 2008
•  "Recent Developments In Assets Sales," Law360, 2008
•  "Ninth Circuit Deletes Controversial Footnote Questioning Entz-White [In re Future Media Productions, Inc.]," Insolvency Law Committee - Business Law Section of the State Bar of California Bankruptcy e-Bulletin, 2008
•  Co-Author, "Ninth Circuit Rules That Oversecured Creditor Presumptively Entitled to Contractual Default Interest, And Cure Might Not Nullify Default Consequences [In re Future Media Productions, Inc.]," Insolvency Law Committee - Business Law Section of the State Bar of California Bankruptcy e-Bulletin, 2008
•  "California Bankruptcy-Only Exemptions Violate Supremacy Clause," Insolvency Law Committee - Business Law Section of the State Bar of California Bankruptcy e-Bulletin, 2008
•  Co-Author, "Getting Tarred by Others' Wrongdoing," California Lawyer, 2008
•  Co-Author, "In-House Counsel Beware: Miller v. McDonald," Bankruptcy Law360, 2008
•  "Financial Handbook for Bankruptcy Professionals," Thomson West (Principal Contributor, 1996 edition & Supplements 1997-2001)
Selected Speaking Engagements
•  Webinar Panelist , "Directors' And Officers' Duties In The Zone Of Insolvency," 2009
•  "Recent Developments in Bankruptcy Sales," Bar Association of San Francisco, 2008
•  "Clearing the Channel: Navigating The Sale Waters After Clear Channel," Insolvency Law Committee Webinar, 2008
•  "First Day Cash Collateral and Financing Motions: How The Judge Evaluates Them And Approaches Grey Areas," San Francisco Bank Attorneys' Association, 2008
•  "Bankruptcy: An In-Depth Guide," Pincus Professional Education, 2008
•  "Bankruptcy Practice: A Practical Primer," Pincus Professional Education, 2007