Michael Lurey retired from the partnership in November 2010. He joined Latham in 1970. He was the chair of the firm's Southern California Insolvency Practice Group and former co-chair of the firm's global Insolvency Practice Group. He also chaired the firm's Finance Department from 1988 to 1991, which administers finance, commercial law and insolvency matters. Mr. Lurey regularly represented debtors, borrowers, lenders, creditors' committees and other parties in all aspects of insolvency matters, including chapter 11 cases and out-of-court restructurings. He represented borrowers, secured creditors and creditors' committees in major financing transactions and out of court restructurings. He also represented lenders and borrowers in new financings and structured finance transactions.
Mr. Lurey represented the Chief Liquidating Officer of MII Liquidation, Inc. (the successor to Metabolife International, Inc.) and the trustee of the liquidating trust formed under the liquidating plan confirmed by MII. He served as special litigation counsel in the chapter 11 cases of Franchise Pictures LLC and its affiliates. He also represented the liquidation trust established under the chapter 11 plan confirmed by Consolidated Freightways Corporation, et al as chapter 11 debtors. Mr. Lurey served as counsel to Leap Wireless International Inc. and Cricket Communications, Inc. as chapter 11 debtors. Leap and Cricket confirmed pre-negotiated chapter 11 plans of reorganization under which the secured indebtedness of the debtors was converted into the equity of the reorganized companies. He was counsel to NorthPoint Communications Group, Inc. et al as debtors in possession in their chapter 11 cases, through which they sold substantially all of their assets on a going-concern basis. He also represented the official creditors' committees in the chapter 11 cases of Superior National Insurance Group, Inc. and MedPartners Provider Network, Inc., which successfully confirmed chapter 11 plans of liquidation. He represented the secured bank groups in the chapter 11 cases of Matthews Studio Equipment Group, and Global Health Sciences, Inc. and their affiliates, and negotiated the liquidation of the bank groups' collateral in each of these cases.
At the time of his retirement, Mr. Lurey was a frequent lecturer and chairperson for the American Bankruptcy Institute, the California Bankruptcy Forum, the Practising Law Institute and various other state educational organizations. He has published articles on numerous aspects of secured and unsecured lending, second lien financings, fraudulent transfer laws, chapter 11 cases and loan restructurings and is co-author of Matthew Bender's treatise "Collier Lending Institutions and the Bankruptcy Code"(1985) and annual updates for that treatise.
Mr. Lurey was recognized as a leading bankruptcy and restructuring attorney in the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011 editions of Chambers USA legal guide and named as an Outstanding Bankruptcy Lawyer of 2003 by Beard Group Inc.'s Turnarounds and Workouts Reporter. He was listed as a leading insolvency and restructuring counsel in Who's Who Legal every year since they initiated their review of insolvency counsel and has been named in The K&A Restructuring Register America's Top 100 each year since its inception. Mr. Lurey was selected to membership in the American College of Bankruptcy in 1994. Mr. Lurey is a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and was chairperson of the Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Section of that association from 1981 to 1982. He has been a member of the Committee on Business Bankruptcy and the Corporation, Banking and Business Law Section of the American Bar Association since 1974. At the time of his retirement, Mr. Lurey was a member and past president of the Financial Lawyers Conference in Los Angeles.