Kim Gage is a partner in the firm’s financial services team. He has been a driving force in expanding the firm from a local Southern California firm to a western regional firm.
Mr. Gage represents financial institutions in all phases of the lending relationship, including documentation, establishing policies and procedures, workouts, litigation to recover collateral and enforce lenders’ rights, and bankruptcy.
Mr. Gage has extensive experience in the automotive finance industry and truck financing industry. He has represented automotive lenders and truck lenders in both commercial and consumer cases for over 40 years. He and his team are western regional counsel for numerous automotive lenders and truck lenders, including GM Financial, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services USA, Daimler Truck Financial Services USA, and TD Auto Finance. Mr. Gage and his team also represent Chase Auto Finance, VW Credit, Inc., and Credit Acceptance Corporation.
Mr. Gage and his team have extensive experience in enforcing automotive and truck lenders’ rights, having litigated dealership cases in the 1980’s, the 1990’s, the automotive meltdown of 2007-2008 and currently. Mr. Gage specializes in workouts of dealership loans. Mr. Gage has represented automotive and truck lenders in literally hundreds of automobile dealership and truck dealership workouts as well as in other dealer default matters.
Mr. Gage has also successfully represented secured lenders in automotive fleet and truck fleet workouts and Chapter 11 and Chapter 15 bankruptcies, including the Hertz, Dean Foods, Yellow Trucking, Kal Freight and Pride Group bankruptcies.
Mr. Gage handles all aspects of automotive and truck lenders’ relationships with their dealers. He has extensive experience in documenting loans from automotive and truck lenders to their dealers. In the 1980’s, Mr. Gage participated in the overhaul of Chrysler Financial’s wholesale/floorplan lending documents, and later in the overhaul of the Mercedes-Benz Financial and Daimler Truck Financial commercial lending and floorplan documents. When GM Financial entered the automotive wholesale floorplan financing business, it turned to Mr. Gage and his team to create a complete set of wholesale lending/floorplan documents for use with its dealer body. Since then, Mr. Gage has created wholesale/floorplan lending documents for both new motor vehicle and used motor vehicle lenders. When GM Financial entered the fleet leasing/lending business, it again turned to Mr. Gage and his team to prepare a complete set of commercial leasing and lending documents.
He lectures frequently on secured creditors’ rights and effective enforcement of those rights pre-litigation, in litigation, and in bankruptcy, and on the use of dealership loan workouts to avoid losses.
Mr. Gage joined the firm in 1978, and has been a partner since 1987. Admitted to practice in California state and federal courts, Mr. Gage and his team have handled sophisticated litigation, sophisticated workouts, and Chapter 11 and Chapter 15 bankruptcies throughout the United States. Mr. Gage graduated from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) cum laude, with a Bachelor of Arts in economics, and obtained his Juris Doctorate from California Western School of Law in 1978.