Education
J.D., University of California, Berkeley, School of Law
B.S., with honors, University of California, Davis
Bar Admissions
California
Court Admissions
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
U.S. District Court, Southern District of California
U.S. District Court, Central District of California
U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California
Memberships
UC San Diego Department of Urban Studies and Planning, California Water Law & Policy, Lecturer
UC San Diego Real Estate and Development Advisory Board, Chair
American College of Bankruptcy, Fellow
American Bankruptcy Institute
American Bar Association, Business Law Section
California Bankruptcy Forum, Past President and Director
San Diego Bankruptcy Forum, Founding Member and Past President
San Diego County Bar Association
American Bar Association, Section on Environment, Natural Resources & Water
Federal Bar Association
Colorado River Water Users Association
David’s quick intellect, attention to detail, and ability to see less obvious connections are a winning combination for clients who engage him to solve legal issues stemming from water resources and creditors’ rights.
David’s combined experience as a lawyer, whose work has ranged from iconic water rights matters to returning billions of dollars to defrauded investors in equity receiverships, and as an executive, guiding strategy, staffing, solution-based pricing, and more, provides substantive value to the clients he serves. Whether routine or novel, his clients are confident that he will find a viable approach for anything that arises. In particular, David is known for his ability to find a path for resolving unique questions—where answers are not clear-cut—or sorting peculiar facts outside of established law.
Although water resources, firm management, and creditors’ rights may seem distinctly different, they do have one thing in common—scarce resources. There's not enough water for the environment, business, and population growth. A law firm has a finite supply of talent, time, and resources to be spread among many competing goods. And, by definition, no debtor-creditor problem ever arises where there is enough money. Each is familiar territory for David, where he is adept at dividing a limited pie among unlimited expectations.
As water supply issues become more extreme nationwide, but particularly in the West, water resources and water rights are critical for businesses to succeed. David works with clients in enterprises as diverse as real estate development, manufacturing, agriculture, solar renewables, and public utilities to resolve their water challenges through negotiation or litigation, if necessary.
Demand caused by population growth, economic activity, and migration is outpacing supply, especially in California. There, David represents real estate developers—commercial, industrial, and residential—and other businesses in all aspects of water resources, from finding water and fighting for water rights to increasing access to existing supplies and getting water to where it is needed.
Over the years, his work has covered master-planned communities, golf courses, farms, landfills, plant and tree nurseries, ranches, solar renewables, sand, aggregates, and aquaculture operations. He has appeared on behalf of his clients before state and federal courts, the California State Water Resources Control Board, and numerous local public agencies, handling significant matters involving the Colorado River, groundwater adjudications, and agriculture to urban water transfers, among others.
David is one of a handful of highly experienced legal resources in California, and beyond. Among his notable achievements, he was intricately involved in negotiating and documenting over a dozen agreements that settled the most significant water matters regarding the Colorado River in the last 50 years.
David is widely recognized as an authority on creditor and debtor rights in out-of-court workouts and restructurings, federal and state court receiverships, and reorganizations and liquidation bankruptcy proceedings.
Primarily, he represents creditors—national, international, and institutional investors and lenders—in restructuring distressed real estate deals and developments.
David has advised and represented secured lenders with collateral ranging from shopping malls and golf courses to hotels, casinos, office buildings, and toll roads. He has represented bankruptcy trustees and examiners in multi-million dollar cases. His creditor committee clients cover matters related to subdivision development, business-to-business e-commerce, manufacturing, hospitality, and entertainment interests, among others.
David has handled more Securities Exchange Commission receivership cases—by size and value—than nearly any other lawyer in California. A Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy (one of only four elected in San Diego), David has been involved in receiverships involving tens of billions of dollars of fraudulent investments, which resulted in the return of billions of dollars to investors.
A sample of major cases David has handled include representing equity receivers in:
David is an active member of the American Bankruptcy Institute and the Section of Business Law of the American Bar Association. He serves on the panel of bankruptcy mediators for the Southern District of California and is a frequent lecturer at debtor-creditor industry conferences.
David’s combined experience as a lawyer, whose work has ranged from iconic water rights matters to returning billions of dollars to defrauded investors in equity receiverships, and as an executive, guiding strategy, staffing, solution-based pricing, and more, provides substantive value to the clients he serves. Whether routine or novel, his clients are confident that he will find a viable approach for anything that arises. In particular, David is known for his ability to find a path for resolving unique questions—where answers are not clear-cut—or sorting peculiar facts outside of established law.
Although water resources, firm management, and creditors’ rights may seem distinctly different, they do have one thing in common—scarce resources. There's not enough water for the environment, business, and population growth. A law firm has a finite supply of talent, time, and resources to be spread among many competing goods. And, by definition, no debtor-creditor problem ever arises where there is enough money. Each is familiar territory for David, where he is adept at dividing a limited pie among unlimited expectations.
As water supply issues become more extreme nationwide, but particularly in the West, water resources and water rights are critical for businesses to succeed. David works with clients in enterprises as diverse as real estate development, manufacturing, agriculture, solar renewables, and public utilities to resolve their water challenges through negotiation or litigation, if necessary.
Demand caused by population growth, economic activity, and migration is outpacing supply, especially in California. There, David represents real estate developers—commercial, industrial, and residential—and other businesses in all aspects of water resources, from finding water and fighting for water rights to increasing access to existing supplies and getting water to where it is needed.
Over the years, his work has covered master-planned communities, golf courses, farms, landfills, plant and tree nurseries, ranches, solar renewables, sand, aggregates, and aquaculture operations. He has appeared on behalf of his clients before state and federal courts, the California State Water Resources Control Board, and numerous local public agencies, handling significant matters involving the Colorado River, groundwater adjudications, and agriculture to urban water transfers, among others.
David is one of a handful of highly experienced legal resources in California, and beyond. Among his notable achievements, he was intricately involved in negotiating and documenting over a dozen agreements that settled the most significant water matters regarding the Colorado River in the last 50 years.
David is widely recognized as an authority on creditor and debtor rights in out-of-court workouts and restructurings, federal and state court receiverships, and reorganizations and liquidation bankruptcy proceedings.
Primarily, he represents creditors—national, international, and institutional investors and lenders—in restructuring distressed real estate deals and developments.
David has advised and represented secured lenders with collateral ranging from shopping malls and golf courses to hotels, casinos, office buildings, and toll roads. He has represented bankruptcy trustees and examiners in multi-million dollar cases. His creditor committee clients cover matters related to subdivision development, business-to-business e-commerce, manufacturing, hospitality, and entertainment interests, among others.
David has handled more Securities Exchange Commission receivership cases—by size and value—than nearly any other lawyer in California. A Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy (one of only four elected in San Diego), David has been involved in receiverships involving tens of billions of dollars of fraudulent investments, which resulted in the return of billions of dollars to investors.
A sample of major cases David has handled include representing equity receivers in:
David is an active member of the American Bankruptcy Institute and the Section of Business Law of the American Bar Association. He serves on the panel of bankruptcy mediators for the Southern District of California and is a frequent lecturer at debtor-creditor industry conferences.
David is a senior member of the Environmental & Natural Resources practice group and has substantial experience in a variety of water rights, water supply and water resources matters. He has appeared on behalf of clients before state and federal courts and the California State Water Resources Control Board, and numerous local public agencies and has handled significant matters involving the Colorado River, groundwater adjudications, and agriculture to urban water transfers. David has represented a broad range of clients including real estate developers, power plant developers, and agricultural and industrial users regarding surface appropriative and riparian rights, groundwater rights, entitlements under state and federal water contracts, reasonable use, waste and conservation, water reclamation, and the sale, lease and transfer of water and water rights. David has represented clients throughout California, including the Counties of Imperial, San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Kern, Alameda, Monterey and Inyo, and in the State of Nevada.
David has represented several power-plant developers with regard to water supply issues including water rights and acquisition analysis for a solar power plant in the Mojave basin; water rights analysis and due diligence regarding a potential hydroelectric power plant acquisition in Northern California; water supply due diligence for reclaimed tertiary-treated water in the South San Francisco Bay area for two natural gas-fueled power plants; water supply due diligence and negotiations for two natural gas-fueled power plant sites in the Northern San Joaquin Valley; and a water rights analysis for a natural gas-fueled power plant adjacent to the Colorado River.
David is a past Editor of California Water Law & Policy Reporter, a former adjunct professor on California Water Law at the University of San Diego School of Law, and currently lectures on California Water Rights and Policy for the University of California San Diego Department of Urban Studies and Planning.
David is the senior member of the Restructuring, Insolvency & Bankruptcy practice group. He is widely recognized as an authority on creditor and debtor rights in out-of-court workouts and restructurings, federal and state court receiverships, and reorganization and liquidation bankruptcy proceedings. David has represented a broad range of clients with respect to debtor-creditor matters. Creditor clients are typically secured lenders and landlords, while debtor clients have encompassed a diverse spectrum of business enterprises. David has also represented bankruptcy trustees and examiners, as well as official creditors committees. He has served as the court-appointed examiner in a multi-million dollar bankruptcy case, and has been designated as an expert witness in a variety of cases. David has also represented federal equity receivers in numerous cases throughout California, Washington and Oregon involving more than $1.6 billion in fraudulent investments.
David is a 2010 inductee as a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy, and was an attorney representative for the Southern District of California to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference for 1997-1999. He is a past president and director of the California Bankruptcy Forum and a founding member and past president of the San Diego Bankruptcy Forum. He is also a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, Turnaround Management Association, and the Section of Business Law of the American Bar Association. David also serves on the panel of bankruptcy mediators for the Southern District of California. David is a frequent lecturer at debtor-creditor industry conferences.
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