Small Business Cases and Individual Chapter 11 Cases

Summer M. Shaw is a founding member and bankruptcy lawyer of SHAW & HANOVER, PC a bankruptcy boutique law firm serving Southern California with its main office located in Palm Desert, California. Summer represents creditors and debtors in bankruptcy and insolvency matters. She is a fearless litigator and employs creative strategies to achieve exceptional results for her clients. Ms. Shaw started her career in 2002 at the Law Offices of George Hanover in Palm Desert. She quickly made partner at the firm Hanover & Shaw. The partners of Hanover & Shaw later teamed with Ms. Doling to form the highly regarded bankruptcy firm DOLING SHAW & HANOVER, APC.

Ms. Shaw was named as The American Bankruptcy Institutes‘ Top 40 Under 40 in 2017, and she has served as the President of the Inland Empire Bankruptcy Forum (IEBF), a division of the California Bankruptcy Forum. She was presented with the 2016 & 2017 Honor Roll of Pro Bono Volunteers of the Central District of California. Summer Shaw is a very active member of the bankruptcy bar serving as a Consumer Co-Chair of various education programs and was honored with The NACBA 2018 Distinguished Lawyer Award.

She is also a Professor of Bankruptcy law at the California Desert Trial Academy (CDTA).

Ms. Shaw is admitted to practice in all state and federal courts in California, including the Supreme Court of California. In addition, she is admitted to practice before the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Alan D. Halperin has been practicing bankruptcy and insolvency law since 1990. Prior to founding Halperin Battaglia Benzija, LLP, Mr. Halperin spent six and one-half years as an associate attorney in the bankruptcy and restructuring department of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, a law firm with a national reputation in the insolvency field, and was a name partner in Pick & Halperin, LLP, a well-regarded bankruptcy boutique.

Mr. Halperin has represented debtors, creditors of all types and creditors’ committees in numerous jurisdictions around the nation. He has represented official and unofficial creditors’ committees in chapter 11 cases and out-of-court restructurings of companies as varied as Tender Loving Care Healthcare Services, Inc., Lionel, Maidenform Worldwide, Dana Corp., Fabrikant, Harry London Candies, RMM Record & Video, R.F. Cunningham, Arenzano Trading Co. and Homemaker Industries. Mr. Halperin has also represented secured and unsecured creditors in other significant cases, such as F&W Media, Sears, Toys R Us, Hollander Sleep, Alliance Health/Uplift, Firestar and School Specialty, and serves as the Liquidation Trustee of M&G, Furniture Brands, Tops Markets and Reichhold. He has represented Debtors such as Speed Vegas, Brunschwig & Fils, Everything But Water, Word World and U.S. Wireless Data. While with Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, Mr. Halperin spent a considerable amount of time representing, among others, the creditors’ committee for Orion Pictures Corp, the debtor JWP, Inc. and the chapter 11 trustee of Laribee Wire Manufacturing. He also served as an expert witness on bankruptcy law.

Mr. Halperin’s broad based experience enables him to provide his clients with the sound counsel they require to safely navigate the bankruptcy process. His expertise includes not only nuts-and-bolts bankruptcy practice, but also strategic planning and formulation of exit strategies. Mr. Halperin counsels financially troubled companies with respect to strategic planning, risks, alternatives and other issues they face both in and out of court. Mr. Halperin also advises committees of creditors as to how to plan for and navigate the workout bankruptcy processes, and helps them to actively and aggressively protect their rights. He regularly provides individual clients with advice on how to structure their transactions with financially troubled companies, and assists in the negotiation and documentation of agreements with both bankrupt and troubled companies.

Mr. Halperin is a graduate of Brandeis University (1987) and Fordham University School of School of Law (1990), and was a Dean’s List student and a member of the Urban Law Journal at Fordham. He was a student intern with former Chief Bankruptcy Judge Tina L. Brozman (S.D.N.Y.) and former Bankruptcy Judge Marvin A. Holland (E.D.N.Y.). Mr. Halperin is a member of the bars of both New York and New Jersey, and is admitted to practice before various federal and bankruptcy bars situated in those states. He is a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, and has lectured on a variety of bankruptcy and related state law topics. Mr. Halperin was included in Law360’s list of 10 most Admired Bankruptcy Attorneys released in September 2010. He was named as one of the country’s Outstanding Young Restructuring Lawyers in 2007 by Turnarounds & Workouts, and was included in Chambers USA list of recommended US bankruptcy lawyers for 2009 through 2019. Mr. Halperin was named to the 2014 and 2018 New York Metro Super Lawyer top 100 lawyers, and has been named in Super Lawyers 2006 through 2019. He has been named in Best Lawyers – Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law the 2015 through 2019.

For almost 40 years, Randy Nussbaum has assisted individuals and businesses with complex bankruptcy protection (debtor and creditor), transaction, and litigation matters. He especially enjoys helping his clients achieve their business and financial objectives using innovative legal strategies.

Randy is a Certified Bankruptcy Specialist (Arizona Board of Legal Specialization) and a Certified Business Bankruptcy Specialist (American Board of Certification). His peers have honored him with multiple peer rankings for his professional, civic and charitable achievements. Randy has been named to Super Lawyers’ “Top 50 Arizona” list of attorneys multiple times and has been selected by The Best Lawyers in America? every year since 2010. Best Lawyers also selected Randy as its 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” (Scottsdale) in Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights.

Randy has represented secured and unsecured creditors, surety companies, creditor committees, lessors, professional athletes, doctors, lawyers, and trustees in Chapter 7, 11, and 13 proceedings, including adversary actions (bankruptcy litigation). The cases have involved such diverse matters as real estate, construction, manufacturing, trucking, asset-based lending, bankruptcy related to divorce, and high-value, complex individual bankruptcies.

Committed to community service, Randy is a 1990 graduate of Scottsdale Leadership. He has volunteered for that organization for more than 28 years, serves on its Advisory Board, and is a recipient of the prestigious Frank W. Hodges Alumni Achievement Award. Randy serves on the advisory boards for the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Scottsdale Historical Society, and Scottsdale Community College. He served as a Sterling Awards Jurist, Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce, and received the Chamber’s 2017 Volunteer of the Year Award. Recognized for his life-long commitment to community service, in 2018 Randy joined the distinguished roster of honorees inducted into the Scottsdale History Hall of Fame.

Hon. Martin R. Barash is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Central District of California in Woodland Hills, sworn in on March 26, 2015. He brings more than 20 years of legal experience to the bench.

Prior to his appointment, Judge Barash had served as a partner at Klee, Tuchin, Bogdanoff & Stern LLP in Los Angeles since 2001, where he counseled parties in chapter 11 cases and litigated chapter 7 and chapter 11 bankruptcy cases. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Procter R. Hug, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1992-93. Judge Barash is a member of ABI’s Board of Directors. He also serves as a director of the Judicial Leadership Development Council and is a member of the NCBJ Committee on Judicial Security. He previously was a member of the board of directors for the Los Angeles Bankruptcy Forum.

Judge Barash is a frequent panelist on bankruptcy law issues and has been a guest lecturer at the UCLA School of Law. He has also been involved in the local legal community as a pro bono attorney with the Public Counsel Chapter 7 Reaffirmation Hearing Clinic, and has been a volunteer judge for a course on negotiating and confirming chapter 11 plans at the UCLA School of Law and with UCLA’s Mock Trial Competition. He currently serves as a director and immediate past president of the Junior Statesmen Foundation, a national, nonpartisan organization sponsoring civics education programs for high school students.

Judge Barash received his A.B. magna cum laude in 1989 from Princeton University and his J.D. in 1992 from the UCLA School of Law, where he served as member, editor, business manager and symposium editor of the UCLA Law Review.