Rus Miliband & Smith : Practice Areas : Litigation

The Firm provides a full range of litigation, arbitration and mediation services to regional and national clients in State and Federal Trial and Appellate Courts throughout California and the western United States. Areas of litigation expertise include real estate, construction, secured transactions, and all manner of business disputes. The roots of this practice lie in financial institution litigation, including matters involving commercial finance, lender liability, financial fraud, regulatory disputes and creditor's rights.

The Firm has achieved considerable success and recognition in complex, multi-party cases involving commercial, banking and accounting irregularities, fraud and real estate. This is due, in large part, to the Firm's efficient, solution-oriented approach to this unique practice area, and its expertise in all manner of provisional remedies, trial practice and alternative dispute resolution.

Lawyers in the Firm frequently encounter insolvency-related issues, particularly in complex multi-party cases, where they are also adept at recognizing and coordinating the bankruptcy implications. The effectiveness of this dual specialty has been demonstrated in such matters as the massive American Continental Corporation/Lincoln Savings class action, multi-district litigation in which the Firm was chosen as co-lead counsel for the class of securities plaintiffs and acted as counsel to the subordinated debenture holders committee in the American Continental Corporation Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.

The Firm represents a wide variety of clients, including "Fortune 500" companies, institutional lenders, municipalities, Court Appointed Trustees and Receivers, Creditors' Committees, small businesses and individuals in matters involving financial insolvency.

The Firm's Lawyers are highly skilled and experienced in all aspects of insolvency, creditor's rights, corporate reorganization and debt restructuring. All aspects of bankruptcy are handled including, Chapter 11 reorganization, bankruptcy litigation, and debtor-in-possession financing. Lawyers in the Firm are also skilled at counseling parties in the acquisition of distressed real property and other assets from bankruptcy estates.

The Firm is one of the most highly regarded in Orange County in the bankruptcy practice and maintains a strong presence in all of the Bankruptcy Courts in Southern California. The lawyers in the Firm are consistently selected as the leaders of professional organizations which deal with bankruptcy and insolvency matters, are frequently invited to participate in panels or speak to professional groups regarding developments in the field and have been selected as the conference chairs of the California Bankruptcy Forum two of the last five years.