PRACTICE FOCUS
Stephen E. Hyam is a Principal attorney in the firm’s Commercial Litigation practice group. He focuses on his clients’ legal issues with an emphasis in addressing their disputes. He is a strategist with decades of success through practical application of unique solutions that promote efficient and effective representation. Mr. Hyam works with his clients to identify and understand their goals. He has experience representing individuals and small- to mid-market businesses. He works with a variety of industries including manufacturing, construction, restaurant, retail sales, technology, and entertainment. Mr. Hyam handles disputes of all sizes, ranging from small matters between two individuals to multi-party claims exceeding $20 million in claimed damages. He has litigated and tried cases in federal and state courts involving fraudulent transfers, business divorces, fraud claims, real estate disputes, breaches of contracts, and embezzlement. He has represented creditors and debtors in judgment enforcement and in adversary proceedings in Bankruptcy Court. His cases frequently involve unusual facts and legal issues.
Mr. Hyam brings his varied experience to advise clients on ways to promote growth and assess and implement risk management goals in all areas, including real estate, business, and contracts.
REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS
- Inter-partner business litigation: Led of diverse team in decade-long investigation to identify and trace stolen business opportunities and hidden assets, including forensic analysis of contracts, communications, financial records, filings with government agencies, and tens of thousands of communications; calculated financial losses; proceeded to 14 day binding arbitration that achieved a $10 million judgment.
- Family dispute: Following clients’ receipt of credible and actionable death threats, formulated and executed plan that resulted in an emergency restraining order; hiring a high-functioning team of experts, including a former counterinsurgency solider, private security, and a firearms dealer, to remove hostile family members from the home and seize multiple non-California compliant assault rifles; and identifying and directing long-term safety and asset preservation strategies.
- Ponzi scheme litigation: Successfully established innocence of a highly skilled attorney and private investment fund manager falsely accused of being a co-conspirator in nine-figure Ponzi scheme that defrauded hundreds of elderly investors.
- Embezzlement litigation: Due to prior successes, at the specific request of the victim, analyzed seven years of business and personal bank records as the sole investigator of employee embezzlement to determine flow of stolen funds; presented to federal law enforcement and Los Angeles Police Department.
- Corporate dissolution: Created exit strategy for co-owner of business, which was necessary as a result of highly contentious disputes between the owners that resulted in the business being unable to operate; brought claims for breach of fiduciary duty and declaratory relief to determine exact percentage of ownership.
- Real estate litigation: Completed client’s purchase of real property in a bankruptcy estate, defeating the objection of a competing buyer who alleged to have a first-in-time right to purchase, avoiding extensive litigation.
- Judgment enforcement: Brought ten years of litigation to a conclusion by acting as intermediary to recover millions of dollars, after performing multiple-year accounting and evaluation of assets on indigenous land.
RECOGNITION
- Rising Star, Southern California Super Lawyers, 2010-2011
