No Easy Getaway: State Court Litigation and the Bankruptcy Discharge

John currently serves as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Martin R. Barash (Bankr. C.D. Cal.). Prior to this role, I completed a one-year clerkship with the Honorable Victoria S. Kaufman (Bankr. C.D. Cal.).

John is licensed to practice in California and will be sitting for the July 2026 Florida bar exam. He graduated summa cum laude with a J.D. from Florida International University College of Law in 2024. During law school, he gained valuable experience as a judicial extern for the Honorable Laurel M. Isicoff (Bankr. S.D. Fla.) and the Honorable Sheri A. Bluebond (Bankr. C.D. Cal.). 

John’s professional interests include corporate restructuring, bankruptcy litigation, municipal debt adjustment, and cross-border insolvency. My research on the interplay between municipal bankruptcy law and modern federalism jurisprudence is published in the FIU Law Review, Volume 18.4. 

Beyond his legal work, John is dedicated to promoting access to justice through mentoring and pro bono service. He gives presentations to children on budgeting and financial literacy through CARE Los Angeles. He also serves as a mentor to several law students through multiple organizations. As a law student, he organized legal name change clinics for transgender individuals and assisted low-income, elderly, and disabled taxpayers by preparing federal tax returns through the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.

Hon. Lee R. Bogdanoff (Ret.) is a neutral at JAMS with over 30 years of experience as a nationally recognized bankruptcy and reorganization practitioner, handling some of the largest and most complex cases of their time — including representing the Enron, Washington Mutual, and IndyMac estates, and serving as lead counsel in the Chapter 9 cases of Orange County, California, and Jefferson County, Alabama. He subsequently served as a Superior Court Judge in Los Angeles County before joining JAMS, where he mediates and arbitrates complex business, commercial, and estate and trust disputes. His bankruptcy litigation experience includes fraudulent transfer, preference, valuation, and related issues.

Jay Spillane is the founding shareholder of Spillane Trial Group PLC, a firm of business trial lawyers representing private companies and individuals in “bet-the-company” cases, where fortunes and futures are on the line. For over three decades, Spillane has tried cases for entertainment and sports personalities such as Robert Redford, Harold Ramis, surf champion Kelly Slater and beach volleyball gold medalist Kent Steffes, and for companies and high level executives in cases involving entertainment, intellectual property, technology, real estate, finance, corporate control and family wealth.

Spillane eschews a tedious style of presenting trials, in which “lawyer-speak” abounds and every small detail is referenced for fear that something might be omitted. He believes that every business trial can be boiled down to ethical principles every juror should have learned by high school: keep your promises, don’t lie, don’t copy, and treat others as you would yourself. This approach often brings forth good settlements, and when a case cannot settle, the best results at trial.

Spillane not only tries cases but handles all level of appeals. He represented Internet billing company CCBill LLC and web host CWIE LLC in the seminal case Perfect 10, Inc. v. CCBill, LLC, 340 F. Supp. 2nd 1077 (C.D. Cal. 2004), aff’d in part, 488 F.3d 1102 (9th Cir. 2007), cert. denied, 129 S. Ct. 709 (2007), one of the most-cited cases concerning when Internet service providers may be immune from, or held secondarily liable for, allegedly infringing content on client websites.

Uzzi Raanan is a partner at Greenberg Glusker with extensive experience representing creditors, debtors, Chapter 11 creditor committees, court-appointed receivers, and bankruptcy trustees. His litigation practice includes fraudulent transfer and preferential transfer avoidance actions, nondischargeability, discharge, asset sales, claims disputes, and bankruptcy appeals. He was honored as Bankruptcy Lawyer of the Year by the Century City Bar Association in 2019 and is a regular contributor to Westlaw’s Commercial Finance Newsletter.

Honorable Martin Barash was appointed to the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California on March 26, 2015, with his current term set to expire on March 25, 2029. A graduate of Princeton University (magna cum laude) in 1989 and UCLA School of Law in 1992, he served as Editor and Business Manager of the UCLA Law Review. Before his appointment, Judge Barash practiced law for over two decades, including as a partner at Klee, Tuchin, Bogdanoff & Stern LLP. He is an active member of professional organizations such as the American Bankruptcy Institute and the Los Angeles Bankruptcy Forum.