Areas of Practice
Commercial and corporate litigation with emphasis in real estate finance, financial institutions, healthcare and bankruptcy
Representative Commercial Cases
California Board of Accountancy v. KPMG, etc. et al. Served as outside trial counsel on a trial team including members of the California Attorney Generals Office in an administrative disciplinary action against the accounting firm of KPMG, its audit partner, and members of its audit staff for audit failures in their audits of Orange County, California and its investment fund immediately prior to the County’s filing for bankruptcy. The administrative trial lasted over 100 days and resulted in professional disciplinary action against both KPMG and its audit partner which was upheld on review. The discipline imposed on KPMG’s license represents only the second time that a big five audit firm has been disciplined.
Morton v. Brown, Los Angeles County Superior Court. Represented the former Senior Vice President of the Hard Rock Cafe in a derivative action against Peter Morton for breach of his fiduciary duties as general partner of the master limited partnership owning and operating the individual restaurants. The action resulted in the sale of Peter Morton’s interest in the Hard Rock Café to outside interests.
IndyMac Bank F.S.B. v. various mortgage brokers/bankers, Los Angeles County Superior Court. Defense of mortgage bankers and mortgage brokers in twenty-five separate cases filed by IndyMac Bank asserting claims for loan repurchase, loan loss indemnification and professional negligence. The claims included purported breaches of various representations and warranties and involved a variety of defenses including the applicability and enforceability of IndyMac’s Seller/Lending Guide.
First Franklin Financial Corp. v. various mortgage brokers/bankers, Los Angeles and Santa Clara County Superior Court. Defense of mortgage bankers and mortgage brokers in five separate cases filed by First Franklin asserting claims for loan repurchase, loan loss indemnification and professional negligence.
Other Representations Include:
Representation of lenders and loan servicers against claims by borrowers
Representation of subordinated Mello-Roos bondholders against the City of Palmdale to compel distribution of delinquent bond payments
Representative Health Care Cases
People v. CHA Hollywood Medical Center, Los Angeles Superior Court. Defending Hospital entities charged with violation of California Business and Professions Code section 17200 arising from two alleged incidents of homeless patient “dumping”.
Erin Brockovich v. Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System, Inc. Erin Brockovich v. Providence Health System, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Defended both hospital systems in qui tam actions purporting to enforce Medicare’s Secondary Payor provisions (42 USC § 1395y(b)(3)). Plaintiff sought recovery of all Medicare funds paid to treat alleged but unspecified hospital malpractice injuries. The cases were dismissed by the trial court and are now on appeal.
Diamond Benefits Life Insurance Co., v. Joint Health Ventures, etc. et al., U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. Defended two regional hospital systems and their joint venture affiliate in multidistrict litigation against a variety of claims including federal and state RICO violations, securities fraud, fraudulent conveyance, conversion, and breach of fiduciary duties arising from the sale of a life insurance company that subsequently went into receivership as the result of criminal misconduct by the buyers. Favorable resolution of these claims entailed reference of certain state law issues of first impression to the Arizona Supreme Court (Diamond Benefits Life Ins. Co. v. Resolute Holdings, Inc., etc., et al., 907 P.2d 63 (1995)), and subsequent appellate review in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals of the summary judgments obtained in favor of the clients on all claims.
Arizona Conference of Seventh-day Adventists v. Adventist Health System/West, etc. et al., Maricopa County Superior Court, Arizona. Defended a large health care system and its affiliate through trial against claims by a local church organization pertaining to the governance, transfer and eventual sale of a local hospital and the resulting use of sale proceeds.
Nick Marlowe v. Med-Cor Health Information Solutions, etc. et al., Alameda County Superior Court and related actions coordinated for trial in San Francisco County Superior Court. Defended three hospitals in litigation brought under California Business & Professionalism Code Section 17200 et. seq. against California hospitals and medical records copying companies for the alleged violation of state statues regulating the manner and cost of providing medical records to patients and their counsel.
Nicholson v. Adventist Health System/West etc. et al., Mendocino County Superior Court. Defended hospital sued for antitrust violations and alleged tortious conduct in connection with its purchase of a neighboring hospital and termination of the hospital-based radiologists at the acquired hospital. A dismissal of all claims was obtained before trial.
Ask-A-Nurse v. Adventist Health System/West, etc. et al., U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. Defense of former owner of telephone protocols developed for use by nurses in responding to patient calls against ownership claims by its authors and indemnification claims by subsequent owners.
Other Representations Include:
Defense of hospitals and health care systems from a variety of claims including antitrust, provider and billing related claims, class action, and scope of care
Investigation by Office of Inspector General of Dept. of Health-Human Services into potential violations of fraud and abuse laws
Breach of fiduciary duty claims by hospital against a joint venture partner over use tax liabilities
Prior Experience
Partner, Arter & Hadden LLP, Litigation Department, 1994-2003
Partner, Head of Litigation Department, McDermott & Trayner, 1987-1994
Partner, Gendel, Raskoff, Shapiro & Quittner, 1983-1987
Litigated over 50 cases through trial and appeal
Articles
Author, “Are You Managing Your Loan Repurchase Risk?”
Education
J.D., Vanderbilt University School of Law, 1976
A.B., cum laude, Dartmouth College, 1973
