Michael S. Kogan is a partner and serves as Head of the Bankruptcy and Reorganization Department. His practice focuses on debtor/creditor rights; corporate reorganization; commercial transactions and workouts.
Michael was the subject of an article in the Daily Journal in March 1999, entitled "Trustee Has Sixth Sense for Sniffing Out Hidden Assets." He was profiled on his being "level-headed and result-oriented" in business and the natural path to his bankruptcy practice. He was frequently quoted throughout the article, commenting on being a trustee as well as a bankruptcy lawyer "Where else do you get to do everything: real estate law, litigation, liability, tax law and business?"
According to his colleagues, another asset of Michael's practice that makes him a natural for bankruptcy work is his background as a tax attorney and a businessman. "He understands how to put a deal together, restructure a company and keep creditors at bay while doing it." In addition, Michael's intuitiveness about debtors' and creditors' motives allows him to "aggressively pursue the position he believes is correct and fair."
Michael is the author of RX Chapter 11: What to Do When the Hospital or HMO is a Terminal Case; Bankruptcy and Intellectual Property: How Intellectual Do You Have to Be?; Hotel-Related Bankruptcies: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You; Security Interests in Intellectual Property: Lending to the High-Tech Company; SOL - Statutes of Limitations or Sure Out of Luck; and The Effect of Bankruptcy on Civil Litigation: State Court's Litigators Guide to Bankruptcy Survival; and Exemptions - Use'm or Lose'm. His published opinions include: In Re Carmel of St. Joseph of Santa Ynez, 237 B.R. 155 (Bankr. 9th Cir. 1999); In Re Pham, 177 B.R. 914 (Bankr. C.D. Cal 1994); In Re Ladera Heights Community Hospital, 152 B.R. 964 (Bankr. C.D. Cal. 1993); In Re Upstairs Gallery, 167 B.R. 915 (Bankr. 9th Cir. BAP 1994).
Michael received his L.L.M. from the New York University School of Law in Taxation in 1985. Michael is a member of the California Bankruptcy Group, the Financial Lawyers Conference, the Business Bankruptcy Committee, the Commercial Law Committee, and the Tax Issues Committee of the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees. He is also a Former Adjunct Professor of Law at Western State University of Law and a former member of the bankruptcy panel of trustees in the Central District of California.
