David M. Stern is a founding member of KTBS.
Mr. Stern is a litigation attorney, specializing in business litigation, bankruptcy, reorganization and creditor’s remedies. He is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America since 1995. Mr. Stern has widely written and lectured on issues of federal civil practice and discovery and co-authored the two-volume treatise, California Civil Discovery Practice (1988 and 1998 editions), published by the Continuing Education of the Bar through the University of California. Among his other writings are “Recent Developments in Truth in Lending Class Actions and Proposed Alternatives,” 27 Stanford Law Review 101, “Law Firm Bankruptcies,” 37 Litigation 8 and “Mediation: An Old Dog With Some New Tricks,” 24 Litigation 31.
Mr. Stern served as the 1998—99 President of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers (ABTL) of which he has been a member since 1980. He has twice been a member of the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, from 1987 through 1991, serving as Co-Chair in 1990—91. He was reappointed in 2011 and was elected in 2015 to the Conference Executive Committee on which he served through 2018. Mr. Stern is also a member of the American Bar Association, the Los Angeles County Bar Association and the Financial Lawyers Conference of Los Angeles, as well as a member of the board of director of the CLL Society.
Mr. Stern earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics cum laude from Columbia University in 1972 and a Juris Doctor from Stanford University Law School in 1975, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and was a member of the Stanford Law Review. Following law school, Mr. Stern served as judicial law clerk to the Honorable Ben C. Duniway of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Mr. Stern has served as special litigation counsel in the Chapter 11 cases of Adelphia Communications, Corp., Brill Media Company, LLC, Enron Corp., Iridium Operating LLC, National Century Financial Enterprises, Inc., National Energy Gas & Transmission, Inc., PG&E Corporation, Pliant Corp., and Samson Resources Corporation, as trial and appellate counsel in connection with the bankruptcy cases of Barry’s Jewelers, Inc., Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, LLP, Crescent Jewelers, Inc., Computer Communications, Inc., Dewey & LeBoeuf, LLP, Enron Corp., Heller Ehrman, LLP, Howrey, LLP, IndyMac Bancorp., Jefferson County, Alabama, Lake at Las Vegas Joint Venture LLC, Tronox, Inc., Washington Group, Inc., Washington Mutual, Inc., and Woodbridge Group of Companies, LLC, and as trial counsel in In re San Juan Dupont Plaza Hotel Fire Litigation, MDL No. 721. Reported cases include Bennett v. Jefferson Cty., 899 F.3d 1240 (11th Cir.2018); Tronox Inc. v. Kerr-McGee Corp. (In re Tronox Inc.), 855 F.3d 84 (2nd Cir. 2017); FDIC v. Siegel (In re IndyMac Bancorp, Inc.), 554 Fed. Appx. 668 (9th Cir. 2014); LID Acquisition, LLC v. Lake at Las Vegas Joint Venture, LLC (In re Lake at Las Vegas Joint Venture, LLC), 497 Fed. Appx. 709 (9th Cir. 2012); In re Dominguez, 51 F.3d 1502 (9th Cir. 1995); In re Dominguez, 995 F.2d 883 (9th Cir. 1993); In re Recticel Foam Corp., 859 F.2d 1000 (1st Cir. 1988); Computer Communications, Inc. v. Codex Corp., 824 F.2d 725 (9th Cir. 1987); In re Shaw, 16 B.R. 875 (9th Cir. BAP 1982); In re Howrey LLP, 2014 WL 3899309 (N.D. Cal. 2014); Siegel v. F.D.I.C., 2012 WL 1951474 (C.D. Cal. 2012) & 2011 WL 2883012 (C.D. Cal. 2011); Enron Corp. v. Citigroup, Inc., (In re Enron Creditors Recovery Corp.), 410 B.R. 374 (S.D.N.Y. 2008); In re Enron Corp., 379 B.R. 425 (S.D.N.Y. 2007); Canada Life Assur. Co. v. Bank of America, 2006 WL 45427 (N.D. Ill. 2006); In re Kior, Inc., 621 B.R. 313 (Bankr. D. Del. 2021); Kravitz v. Samson Energy Co., LLC (In re Samson Res. Corp.), 625 B.R. 291 (Bankr. D. Del. 2020) & 590 B.R. 643 (Bankr. D. Del. 2018); De La Rochelle v. Woodbridge Grp. of Cos., LLC (In re Woodbridge Group of Companies, LLC), 593 B.R. 200 (Bankr. D. Del. 2018); In re Woodbridge Group of Companies, LLC, 590 B.R. 99 (Bankr. D. Del. 2018); In re N. Am. Health Care Inc., 544 B.R. 684 (Bankr. C.D. Cal. 2016); In re GGW Brands, LLC, 504 B.R. 577 (Bankr. C.D. Cal. 2013); In re Jefferson County, Ala., 465 B.R. 243, 469 B.R. 92, 474 B.R. 228 & 474 B.R. 725 (Bankr. N.D. Ala. 2012); In re IndyMac Bancorp, Inc., 2012 WL 103748 (Bankr. C.D. Cal. 2012); In re Balas, 449 B.R. 567 (Bankr. C.D. Cal. 2011); In re Adelphia Comm. Corp., 330 B.R. 364 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2005). Mr. Stern has also served as trial or appellate counsel in numerous unreported cases and decisions.