Jacquelyn H. Choi

Jacquelyn H. Choi counsels secured and unsecured creditors involving all facets of corporate bankruptcy. Ms. Choi has significant experience advising trade creditors, municipalities, lenders, real estate funds, commercial landlords, and corporate franchisors concerning their creditor rights in bankruptcy. She also has extensive bankruptcy litigation and appellate experience.

Ms. Choi has a robust practice representing California municipalities involving bankruptcy matters throughout the country. Her clients have included, among others, the State of California, and the Counties of Los Angeles, Santa Clara, Santa Barbara, Sonoma, Orange, Riverside, Fresno, San Bernardino, Merced, Contra Costa, Alameda and Napa. She routinely defends County officials in adversary proceedings, represents County prosecutors to enforce their police and regulatory powers in bankruptcy and prosecutes criminal non-dischargeability actions to judgment.  Ms. Choi lectures on behalf of the 58 Counties in California concerning a broad range of bankruptcy topics including bankruptcy taxation matters.

Prior to joining Rimon, Ms. Choi practiced at DLA Piper during the 2008 global financial crisis, where she represented Chapter 11 debtors, individual creditors and creditors’ committees concerning bankruptcy, restructuring and out-of-court workouts across all industries, including the retail, hospitality, and real estate space.

SELECTED EXPERIENCE

• Representation of the County of Los Angeles and the County of Alameda in the seminal case of In re Palmdale Hills Property, LLC wherein the 18% redemption penalties under state law were successfully characterized as “interest” under the Bankruptcy Code.
• Representation of the People of the State of California and the County of Los Angeles in the matter of In re Barton Wayne Fishback involving the enforcement of governmental police and regulatory powers surrounding the debtor’s illegal waste dump operations.
• Representation of the County of Los Angeles in the matter of In re Verity Health System of California, Inc. as a proposed overbidder involving the 363-asset sale related to the proposed acquisition of the debtor’s hospital.
• Representation of the County of San Bernardino in the matter of In re Halo Sports Bar and Grill, Inc. involving in rem relief from the automatic stay to foreclose on a retroactive basis.
• Representation of the County of Sonoma in the matter of In re Palm Drive Healthcare District involving the post-confirmation dissolution and transfer of assets and liabilities.
• Representation of the County of Merced in the matter of In re  Carson Valley, LLC concerning the substantial recovery of taxes, penalties and interest from the 363 sale of debtor’s contaminated property.
• Representation of the County of Santa Barbara in the matter of In re Carpinteria Partners Limited Partnership involving chapter 11 conversion and in rem relief from stay.
• Representation of the County of Contra Costa in the matter of In re Rockenbaugh involving serial bankruptcy filings and in rem relief from stay.
• Representation of the County of Santa Clara in the matter of In re PG&E Corporation involving counseling and advice in connection with plan confirmation issues.
• Representation of the County of San Diego in the matter of In re A-1 Express Delivery Service, Inc. involving dismissal of a suit for alleged preferential and fraudulent transfers prior to responsive deadline.
• Representation of numerous California Counties successfully defending allegations concerning violations of the automatic stay and requests for punitive damages surrounding issuance of tax sale notices during bankruptcy proceedings.
• Representation of Domino’s Pizza involving various franchisee bankruptcies and issues surrounding debtors’ proposed assumption of franchise agreements, plan exclusivity, substantive consolidation and plan confirmation disputes.
• Representation of Swift Financial Corporation (acquired by Paypal Holdings, Inc.) in the matter of In re Randazzo involving grant of summary judgment under non-dischargeability complaint arising from bankruptcy fraud and award of attorney’s fees and costs against debtor.
• Representation of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of In re Ahava of California, LLC involving opposition to secured creditor’s venue transfer request from California to New York.
• Representation of the appointed Chapter 7 Trustee of In re Flashcom, Inc. prosecuting 125+ preferential transfer suits resulting in successful recovery of over $1.25 million on behalf of estate.
• Representation of various real estate investment funds of Wells Real Estate Funds, Inc. as commercial lessors involving FDIC’s receivership of IndyMac Bank, F.S.B. and subsequent bankruptcy proceeding.
• Represented real estate investment trust Archstone Properties involving residential tenant bankruptcies.