Biography
Yale K. Kim is senior counsel in the firm’s Los Angeles office, where he is a member of the Bankruptcy & Creditors’ Rights and Litigation Groups.
Yale’s practice generally includes the representation of creditors in litigation proceedings in state and federal courts. He also represents creditors in all aspects of bankruptcy proceedings, including prosecuting and defending adversary proceedings.
Bankruptcy
In bankruptcy matters, Yale has represented secured creditors through numerous Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 commercial real estate bankruptcies involving office buildings, apartment buildings and land developments, among others. Based upon his extensive experience in such matters, Yale has counseled clients throughout the complicated bankruptcy process and advised on overall strategy and procedure for creditors with the client's business objective in mind.
In addition to Yale's commercial real estate bankruptcy experience, he has represented creditors in all aspects of adversary proceedings including defending preference and other avoidance actions, and also assisted creditors throughout the claims process.
Yale also has extensive experience in representing creditors in consumer bankruptcy cases involving individual Chapter 11 and Chapter 13 matters, and Chapter 7 liquidation cases. Yale has represented numerous financial institutions as creditors and assisted them through the consumer bankruptcy process, and has also defended creditors in related adversary proceedings. Yale's experience in handling consumer bankruptcy matters extends to many jurisdictions outside of California.
His prior experience as a judicial law clerk for the longest-sitting bankruptcy judge in the Central District of California, Judge Barry Russell, has provided significant depth to Yale's experience as a bankruptcy lawyer. This experience has enabled him to effectively advise clients in understanding the overall bankruptcy court process and the decision-making rationale of bankruptcy court judges.
Litigation
In state court litigation matters, Yale has considerable experience in representing creditors in both pre-judgment and post-judgment remedies. He has assisted creditors in exercising remedies following loan defaults, and successfully sought the appointment of receiver in both real estate and non-real estate cases. On behalf of creditors, Yale has successfully obtained pre-judgment remedies, such as writs of attachment and possession, and post-judgment remedies, such as writs of execution, judgment debtor examinations, abstracts of judgment and UCC judgment liens.
Yale also devotes a significant amount of his practice to defending financial institution clients in all aspects of mortgage-related litigation, related to claims dealing with loan origination, loan servicing (including loan modification), foreclosure, and the post-foreclosure REO process, among others. Yale has handled numerous cases through the litigation process and successfully resolved these cases either through dispositive pleadings or settlement.
Receivership
For receivership matters, Yale has extensive experience in representing receivers appointed in Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Trade Commission enforcement actions in federal courts. He has represented federal receivers throughout the entire receivership process in federal courts and assisted the receivers in the administration of the receivership estate properties including the sale of assets, the "claw-back" of assets through litigation, the claims disposition process, the distribution process, and following distribution, the closing of the receiverships, among others. Yale has worked closely with federal receivers, the SEC and FTC in ensuring an efficient and effective administration of these receiverships on behalf of the investors and creditors who are looking for recoveries from the receiverships.
Prior to joining Allen Matkins, Yale practiced for six years in the Financial Restructuring & Bankruptcy department of the Los Angeles office of Mayer Brown LLP.
Yale has served as a judicial law clerk to The Honorable Barry Russell, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California, Los Angeles Division, (a former Chief Bankruptcy Judge in the Central District) and Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Ninth Circuit, from 1996 to 1997 (and former Presiding Judge of the BAP).
Education
Yale received his B.A. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, where he made the dean’s list. He received his J.D. from the Santa Clara University School of Law, and was a technical editor for the Santa Clara University Law Review.
Bar Admissions
Court Admissions
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California
- U.S. District Court, Central District of California
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of California