M. Jonathan Hayes
M. Jonathan Hayes
9700 Reseda Blvd. Suite 201
Northridge, CA 91324
telephone: (818) 882-5600
fax: (818) 882-5610
jhayes@hayesbklaw.com
www.hayesbklaw.com
Practice Areas:
Bankruptcy & Insolvency, General Civil Litigation
Certified Bankruptcy Specialist, California Bar Association, Board of Legal Specialization
Education:
Loyola University School of Law (J.D., 1977)
Loyola University (B.A., 1971)
Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution of the Pepperdine University School of Law, 30 hours, 1995
M. Jonathan Hayes, a former partner at Haight, Brown & Bonesteel, LLP, concentrates his practice in bankruptcy and corporate - business litigation. He has represented many Chapter 11 debtors, businesses and individuals, and effected many successful reorganization plans. Mr. Hayes has prosecuted and defended complaints to declare debts non-dischargeable, to deny the discharge and other bankruptcy related litigation matters. He has defended several fraudulent conveyance actions brought by trustees in so-called Ponzi schemes. He has filed many Chapter 7 petitions for clients and has handled many bankruptcies that are commenced because of tax problems of the debtors, including recently a major R & B group.
Mr. Hayes’ recent chapter 11 cases include representing a former major league baseball player with $40 million in assets; a company which had 27 lawsuits pending against it on the date of filing being defended by the debtor’s insurance company; a company which owns 20 oil wells; a company which owned a large hotel in Culver City which was sold during the case for $25 million, a “dot com” company; a Condominium Homeowners Association fending off a $9 million judgment creditor; a furniture manufacturing company ($4 million annual sales); a chain of carpet stores ($10 million annual sales); an employee leasing company ($30 million in annual sales); a wireless entertainment equipment sales company; a litigation attorney; a sunglass wholesaling company; a bait tank and machine shop; and a small commercial center. In 2009, Mr. Hayes filed 16 chapter 11 cases for individuals primarily trying to save their homes and other real property. In the past, he has represented three franchisees in the Econo-Lube bankruptcy filing adversary proceedings for each demanding more than $10 million in total and settling each successfully. He represented the Creditor’s Committee in the Lucy’s LaundryMart and SBB Roofing chapter 11 cases. He was lead counsel for the Creditor's Committee in the Breath Asure, Inc. Chapter 11 and the B.C. Oil, Inc. Chapter 11.
Mr. Hayes has prosecuted and defended several bankruptcy appeals to the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel and to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. He has a case pending at this time before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals representing an attorney who has been sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission. He was on the brief for the NACBA Amicus brief in the Kagenveama case in 2007.
Mr. Hayes has been a member of the panel of mediators of the Bankruptcy Mediation Program for the Central District of California since the program's inception. He received an award from the court for “Most Frequently Chosen Mediator in the Central District – 2000-2001” and “Most Frequently Chosen Mediator in the Los Angeles Division – 2004- 2005.”
Mr. Hayes has written many articles including:
• “How Does an Above-Median Chapter 13 Debtor Compute Her Plan Payments?”, Preview of the United States Supreme Court Cases, American Bar Association, Issue No. 6, Vol. 37, March 22, 2010.
• “11 U.S.C. §523(a)(19) Application of Denial of Discharge to Securities Law Violators,” American Bar Association, Journal of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Committee, Vol. 15, No. 3, Summer 2009 (with Robert J. Haupt and Robert N. Sheets)
• “A Chapter 13 Primer for the Non-Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Attorney,” California Bankruptcy Journal, January, 2009 (with James T. King).
• “Chapter 7 Bad Faith, Substantial Abuse and Dismissal with Prejudice: Totality of the Circumstances Needs to be Rethunk,” California Bankruptcy Journal, January, 2005
• “The Expanding Liability of Corporate Directors and Officers: Now You Have to Worry About “In the Vicinity of Insolvency,” A Judicially Created Gun for Creditors, with Morton S. Rosen, California Bankruptcy Journal, March, 2004
• “Attorneys Should Follow Simple Bankruptcy Law Rules of Thumb,” Los Angeles Daily Journal, August 30, 2002;
• "The Bankruptcy Discharge: Its Not As Easy As It Looks," California Bankruptcy Journal, October, 2000;
• "Formulating and Confirming a Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization," Journal of Legal Advocacy & Practice, University of La Verne School of Law, Volume 2, 2000; and
• "Fighting the Abusive Chapter 13," Los Angeles Daily Journal.
Presentations:
• Nuts and Bolts of Chapter 11Bankruptcy; University of West Los Angeles MCLE Program, October 15, 2010.
• Nuts and Bolts of Bankruptcy; University of West Los Angeles MCLE Program, May 15 and 15, 2010.
• “A Review of 9th Circuit Published Decisions on Bankruptcy” for the Los Angeles County Bar Assn presentations on September 26, 2006 with retired Bankruptcy Judge Lisa Hill Fenning; October 17, 2007 with Bankruptcy Judge Samuel Bufford; and November 17, 2009 with Bo Bollinger and Aram Ordubegian. Presentations also made to the Central District Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys Assn on March 27, 2007 with Bankruptcy Judge Victoria Kaufman, on January 26, 2008 with Chief Bankruptcy Judge Vincent Zurzolo, on February 21, 2009 with Judge Meredith Jury, on January 30, 2010 with Judge Erithe Smith, on January 22, 2011 with Judge Maureen Tighe and on January 21, 2012 with Judge Sandy Klein.
In addition, Mr. Hayes sits on
• the Board of Editors of the California Bankruptcy Journal,
• the Bankruptcy Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association.
• the Board of Directors of the Central District Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys Association (“cdcbaa”) and is Editor of the cdcbaa newsletter.
• the California State Bar Bankruptcy Law Advisory Commission
Mr. Hayes has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of West Los Angeles (previously University of LaVerne School of Law) for the past 21 years where he has taught Bankruptcy, Business Organizations, Contracts, Advanced Bankruptcy Issues, Commercial Law, and Taxation. He is on the Faculty Senate of the University of West Los Angeles School of Law. Before that he was on the faculty of Whittier School of Law for four years.
Mr. Hayes is the author of three books entitled, “A Summary of Bankruptcy Law,” published in July, 2009, available at Amazon.com; “Bankruptcy Jurisprudence from the Supreme Court,” published in 2009, also available at Amazon.com; and “Melvyn ‘Deacon’ Jones: My 40 years with the Blues Legends,” privately published in 2004.
Mr. Hayes previously wrote a monthly column, “Judicial Profiles” for the San Fernando Valley Bar Association magazine, “Bar Notes,” on judges in the San Fernando Valley. He maintains a blog at www.centraldistrictinsider.com. He is married and has four children. He has lived in Northridge for 29 years.