Business Law

James A. (“Jim”) Hayes, Jr. is currently the chair of the CLA Insolvency Law Committee’s Education Subcommittee and a member of the Legislation Subcommittee. Throughout his nearly 30 years as a member of the legal profession, Jim Hayes has blended representing clients as a practicing lawyer with an academic career as a law professor, both full-time and part-time. In his law practice, Jim is a founder of Zinser | Hayes with attorney Kelly Zinser.  Jim concentrates on corporate and business… Read more

July 2025 Recently, I had someone ask me, why do you bother being civil with that person?  You know they’ll never treat you with respect, let alone civility, and in any case, they appear to favor cruelty above all else, so why bother?  Ultimately, that is one of the main reasons our clients come to us.  They have an irreconcilable disagreement with another party or parties, and they would like us to advise them on how to navigate those challenges… Read more

The following is a case update written by Hale Andrew Antico, Chief Counsel of Antico Law Firm, analyzing Applegate v Carrington Foreclosure Services, ___ Cal. Rptr. 3rd ___,  2025 WL 1766233 (Court of Appeal, First District, California (June 26, 2025)). Read more

On June 17, 2025 the California on Frontier AI Policy, prepared by an expert working group at the request of Governor Gavin Newsom was released. This comprehensive forward-looking policy comes after Newsom vetoed previous legislation attempting to regulate AI systems in 2024. Read more

The Hon. J. Barrett Marum sat down with Gary Rudolph and Kathleen Cashman-Kramer to talk about his first ten months on the bench. Read more

In Lysyy v. Deutsche Bank National Trust Co., ___ F.4th. ___ (W.D. Wash., May 27, 2025) (“Lysyy”), the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington (the “District Court”) granted the motion of the defendant (the “Defendant”) to strike the jury demand of the plaintiff (the “Plaintiff”) for violation of the automatic stay under Bankruptcy Code § 362(k) and to quiet title on the grounds that both were claims in equity for which the Seventh Amendment of the United States Constitution (the “Seventh Amendment”) does not guarantee a jury trial in federal court.  Read more

The United Staes Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Mississippi (the Court) recently held that damages arising from an employer’s failure to give the required notices under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (the “WARN Act”) ware entitled to priority as wages under 11 U.S.C. § 704(a)(4).  Read more

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (the Court) recently denied the motion of an Assignee for the Benefit of Creditors to dismiss an involuntary chapter 7 proceeding or to abstain, concluding that the best interests of creditors and administration of the estate favored a bankruptcy proceeding.  Read more

In HAR-BD, LLC v. Leslie (In re TBH19, LLC), 668 B.R. 881 (9th Cir. BAP 2025), the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (“BAP”) reaffirmed that administrative fees such as the trustee’s statutory commission or attorneys’ fees in a chapter 7 case should not necessarily be reduced simply because those professionals will ultimately receive more than unsecured creditors.  Read more

Leonard Gumport has served as a mediator for more than 25 years. His mediations have involved bankruptcy, business, regulatory, and consumer disputes, including class actions and government enforcement proceedings. Read more