Matthew Bender Practice Guide: California Debt Collection and Enforcement of Judgments

Susan L. Vaage is a partner in the Los Angeles firm of Graham • Vaage, LLP. Since her admission to practice, Ms. Vaage has specialized in the representation of financial institutions in state, federal and bankruptcy courts. She has extensive jury trial experience, primarily defending significant lender liability claims, and has handled a variety of commercial and bankruptcy cases in areas such as enforcement of guarantees, commercial loans, secured transactions, real property, and consumer law. She has also assisted the firm's financial institution clients in connection with multi-million dollar commercial loan workouts, analyzed litigation risks in connection with problem loans, and successfully defended creditors against a wide variety of claims including fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, bad faith, unfair business practices, unconscionability, RICO violations, and wrongful termination. She has done transactional and documentation work, inter-creditor negotiations and agreements, and has assisted clients with lease and real property purchase and sale negotiations.

Ms. Vaage has lectured to many industry and Bar groups on topics related to her areas of expertise, and frequently speaks to in-house groups for representative clients, including the California Bankers Association and the National Business Institute. She is a member of the State Bar of California (former Member, Debtor/Creditor Relations and Bankruptcy Committee of the Business Law Section), the Financial Lawyers Conference, the Los Angeles Bankruptcy Forum, the Los Angeles County Bar Association and its Commercial Law and Bankruptcy and Provisional Remedies Subsections, the Commercial Law League, the American Bankruptcy Institute, the Los Angeles Mexican American Bar Association, and the California Receivers Forum. She has served as Judge Pro Tem for the Los Angeles Superior Court for over 10 years, and has been appointed as a court receiver. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Irvine in 1975, and earned her J.D. from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, in 1978.

Breck E. Milde is a founding partner of the San Jose firm of Terra Law, LLC. He has extensive litigation experience in the state and federal courts in the areas of commercial law, secured and unsecured transactions, creditor's rights, lender liability, real estate law (including purchase and sale transactions, landlord-tenant disputes, real estate broker liability, boundary and easement disputes and construction law), bank operations law, negotiable instruments, insurance coverage, and bad faith. He also practices bankruptcy law under Chapters 7, 11 and 13 of the Bankruptcy Code, primarily representing creditors in adversary proceedings, relief from stay motions, claims disputes, objections to plans of reorganization, motions for the conversion or dismissal of bankruptcy cases, cash collateral proceedings, enforcement of executory contracts, appointment of trustees, preference and fraudulent transfer litigation, as well as post-confirmation matters.

Prior to joining Terra Law, Mr. Milde practiced at Jackson Tufts Cole & Black, LLP and, before that, served as legal counsel to Comerica Bank California and its predecessor, Pacific Western Bank.

He is a past chair of San Jose Bank Attorney Association and currently is a member of the Congressman Don Edwards Inn of Court, a group consisting of bankruptcy judges and attorneys who practice in the area of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. He is a former member of the executive committee of the Santa Clara County Bar Association's Business Litigation Section, and past Chair of the Bankruptcy and Commercial Law Section. He is a member of the California State Bar Association, Litigation and Business Law Sections, and the American Bar Association.

Mr. Milde is a frequent speaker at seminars and programs in the areas of enforcement of judgments, collections, commercial law, and bankruptcy.

He earned his JD from the Santa Clara University School of Law, in 1985, and a B.A. with honors from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1981.

William I. Goldsmith is a partner in the Northridge law firm of Goldsmith & Hull, specializing in civil litigation, creditors’ rights, and debt collection.

Mr. Goldsmith has been a frequent lecturer for the National Business Institute, National Association Of Retail Collection Attorneys, Commercial Law League of America, Los Angeles County Bar Association, Small Business Administration, and various business trade groups in the areas of creditors rights, business law, debt collection, enforcement of judgments, equipment leasing, media and entertainment collection issues, and federal courts and debt collection. He has been acknowledged as an authority in the field of creditor’s rights and remedies, and has been quoted on CBS, CNN, Fox Television, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

He is a member of the Los Angeles County and San Fernando Valley Bar Associations, Consumer Attorneys Association of California, Commercial Law League of America, and is a founding member of the National Association Of Retail Collection Attorneys, where he has served as a vice president and member of the board of directors. He is also the former president of the California Creditors Bar Association. He has worked with the California state legislature and has been appointed by the California Judicial Council to serve on committees implementing changes in the procedural requirements affecting the way collection cases are handled, implementing changes making the administration of these matters more efficient for not only the parties, but the courts and attorneys. In 1988, he was chosen by the United States Department of Justice and awarded the initial contract for the use of private law firms to collect debts of the United States of America, including those of the Department of Education, Veterans Administration, Department of Defense, Housing & Urban Development (HUD), Department of Transportation, and Small Business Administration. He has an “AV” Rating from Martindale-Hubbell.

Mr. Goldsmith has served as a judge pro tem and arbitrator with the Los Angeles County Superior Courts and the Los Angeles County Bar Association (attorney fee disputes). He received his B.A. degree cum laude from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1975, and his J.D. degree from La Verne University in 1978.

Daniel J. McCarthy is a partner in the Los Angeles firm of Hill, Farrer & Burrill, LLP. He specializes in general business litigation, bankruptcy, out-of-court workouts and liquidation, receiverships, attachments, and collections. His bankruptcy experience includes the representation of creditors in preference, fraudulent transfer and claims objection litigation, landlords in relief from automatic stay and lease assumption and rejection, unsecured creditor committees in Chapter 11 cases, secured creditors in relief from automatic stay, cash collateral and plan confirmation disputes, trustees in significant Chapter 7 liquidations, debtors in all aspects of reorganizing and liquidating bankruptcies, and parties to bankruptcy-related appeals.

Mr. McCarthy has an "AV" Rating from Martindale-Hubbell and was voted a Southern California Super Lawyer (2004 and 2007) in bankruptcy and workout. He is member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, Trial Lawyers, Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Sections, American Board of Trial Lawyers, Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the State Bar of California, and the American Bar Association Litigation Section. His published works include "Avoiding the Bankruptcy Code's Ratable Distribution Scheme," Los Angeles Lawyer, June 2004.

He received his J.D. from The University of Michigan Law School in 1981, and his A.B. cum laude from Harvard University in 1978. He was admitted to the California Bar in 1981.