Michelson Law Group has a dual focus: commercial bankruptcy
(business bankruptcy, out of court workouts, and receivership) and
mediation of every type of commercial case.
Business Bankruptcy
Over the last quarter century, Ms. Michelson has been a leader in the field
of business bankruptcy. She has represented every constituent in the
bankruptcy arena. She most commonly deploys her legal expertise on
behalf of creditors, trustees, creditors' committees and purchasers of assets.
She provides highly-skilled counsel in both large, complex and closely-held business bankruptcy cases.
• Creditor Representation Michelson Law Group represents every type
of creditor, from secured lender to trade creditor, bondholder to claim
purchaser, licensor to licensee, landlord to tenant. Randy Michelson's
expertise extends from the bankruptcy court to appeals at all levels,
including the U.S. Supreme Court. Ms. Michelson is a nationally-
recognized authority on intellectual property and bankruptcy. In the
seminal Catapult case, Perlman v. Catapult Entertainment, Inc. (In re
Catapult Entertainment, Inc.), 165 F.3d 747 (9th Cir.), cert .dismissed, 120
S. Ct. 369 (U.S. 1999), she represented Microsoft Corporation and
Stephen Perlman, a licensor of patented technology to Catapult.
Through multiple levels of appellate review, Ms. Michelson established
the principle that a debtor cannot assign, over the objection of its licensor,
intellectual property. Ms. Michelson also focuses on real estate and
bankruptcy. She represented a lessor in Mayan Networks, a key
Ninth Circuit case on the treatment of landlord claims in bankruptcy cases,
In re Mayan Networks Corp. (Redback Networks, Inc. v. Mayan Networks Corp.), 308
B.R. 295 (9th Cir. BAP 2004).
• Trustee Representation Ms. Michelson has vast experience in
representing Chapter 11 trustees. She often is retained in cases where
complex frauds have been perpetrated. In one matter, she herself was
appointed as the Chapter 11 trustee. She developed a litigation strategy to
maximize return for creditors. Following a jury trial in which the jury
found a basis for the imposition of punitive damages, Ms. Michelson was
able to negotiate a resolution of the estate's claims that paid all creditors in
full, with a large sum remaining for equity.
• Creditors' Committee Representation In the Aureal bankruptcy case,
Ms. Michelson represented the committee of unsecured creditors. She
successfully navigated a contentious sale of the debtor's assets, succeeding
in selling not only the debtor's intellectual property but also potentially
valuable claims against third parties, over the strenuous objections of both
the debtor and the shareholders. As a result of her stewardship, unsecured
creditors received a distribution of more than 85% of their claims. Ms.
Michelson represented the committee of governmental entities in the
Chapter 11 bankruptcy case of Davis Industries, then one of the ten
largest handgun manufacturers in the U.S. Ms. Michelson's clients
included cities and counties across the country that had sued handgun
manufacturers in an attempt to reduce violent crime. Davis Industries
sought bankruptcy protection to stay all of the litigation against it. Ms.
Michelson established in the bankruptcy court and on appeal that the
automatic stay under the United States Bankruptcy Code did not prevent
the governmental litigation from continuing against Davis Industries
given that the governmental litigation across the country was intended
to protect public health and safety. As a result of her representation, the
bankruptcy case was dismissed and Davis Industries was liquidated.
• Buying and Selling of Assets Ms. Michelson excels at the representation
of buyers and sellers of distressed assets. Throughout her career, she has
represented clients in the sale or disposition of assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Those assets include real estate, technology, intellectual property,
restaurants, financial service firms, franchises, and much more.
• Professional Bankruptcy Organizations Ms. Michelson is a director of the
International Women's Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation
(IWIRC), Northern California Chapter. She has led the California
Bankruptcy Forum, the Bay Area Bankruptcy Forum, and the Bar
Association of San Francisco's Commercial Law and Bankruptcy
Section.
Mediation
There are times when litigation is not the answer. At its very best,
litigation is torturous, expensive, stressful and unpredictable way to settle
disputes. Courts at every level now encourage or require litigants to
participate in mediation, arbitration, early neutral evaluation, and other
forms of alternative dispute resolution. There is good reason for this: it works.
Virtually every frequent user of the legal system can recount
settlements reached in mediation of cases that all parties and their
attorneys had been certain never could be settled. And many others that
settled as well.
As a mediator, Randy Michelson works to facilitate consensual resolution
of every type of commercial case. Her skills and demeanor enable her to
do so with much success.
Professional Mediation Affiliations
Ms. Michelson has been selected as a resolution advocate for the
Bankruptcy Dispute Resolution Panel of the United States Bankruptcy
Court for the Northern District of California. She frequently serves as a
mediator of complaints filed by citizens against police officers for the City
of San Francisco's Office of Citizen Complaints.