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Donald W. Fitzgerald (Retired)
Retired Former Partner
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Donald W. Fitzgerald retired from the practice of law effective July 31, 2019. Below is some background information on one of the top California bankruptcy attorneys, who we had the privilege of learning from and working with over the past twenty years.
Don had more than thirty years' experience in providing legal representation in all phases and types of chapter 11 proceedings, business restructures, corporate insolvencies and out-of-court loan workouts. Don's representation included lenders, lessors, debtors, trustees, creditors’ committees, and purchasers of assets in business reorganizations and wind-downs. Don represented lenders in bankruptcy courts on such matters as cash collateral, post-petition financing, relief from stay, lien avoidance, and contested confirmation hearings, and in such non-bankruptcy matters as administering to foreclosure of real and personal property and documentation of out-of-court workouts.
Education
University of Arizona 1979, J.D. with High Distinction, Order of the Coif
University of California, Davis 1976, B.A., History
Other Experience
Kronick Moskovitz Tiedemann & Girard LLP, Partner (1980-2001)
Legal Memberships, Activities and Honors
Don's consistently successful outcomes in high-profile engagements and effective and efficient approach to managing both complex and modest-sized cases earned him considerable accolades and honors from his peers and from independent lawyer rating services. Don was inducted as a Fellow in the prestigious American College of Bankruptcy in 2003 and is AV rated by Martindale Hubbell. Recently named by Law and Politics Magazine as one of the top 25 lawyers in Sacramento, Don was recognized as a Super Lawyer® of Northern California each year since 2005. Don was named in The Best Lawyers in America in the specializations of Bankruptcy, Creditor-Debtor Rights and Bankruptcy Litigation for each year since 2006, and was honored by Best Lawyers as the "Sacramento Lawyer of the Year" in the field of bankruptcy and business reorganization law in 2013 and again in 2018, and in 2017 in the field of bankruptcy litigation. Don has been recognized by the Sacramento Business Journal as one of the elite "Best of the Bar" for each year from 2013 through 2017.
Don was a member of the state bars of California and Arizona, and is a former officer (1987-1989) and president (1990) of the Sacramento County Bar Association's Bankruptcy and Commercial Law Section. He completed a three-year term as an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Sacramento Valley Bankruptcy Forum, serving as its president in 1998. Don was a board member of the California Bankruptcy Forum from 1998 through 2001, and in 2002 co-chaired the Forum's Annual Conference. Don served for three years (1993-1996) as an appointed member of the State Bar Business Section's Committee on Debtor/Creditor Relations and Bankruptcy, which reviews and proposes legislation on issues of importance to the lending community.
Don was an active panel member of the Eastern District of California's Alternative Dispute Resolution Program, servedon the Eastern District of California Bankruptcy Rules Committee and speaks frequently for bar groups and professional associations on bankruptcy and workouts.