Malhar S. Pagay

Malhar S. Pagay is a business lawyer with Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP in Los Angeles, where he focuses his practice on the development and implementation of strategic alternatives for and against distressed businesses. A member of the firm’s Healthcare Restructuring Group, he has substantial experience representing chapter 11 debtors, trustees, unsecured creditors, creditors’ committees and other parties in the contexts of bankruptcy cases, adversary proceedings, commercial litigation, mediations, domestic and international business transactions, business reorganizations, and out-of-court corporate restructurings of debt. Mr. Pagay has broad industry experience, including in health care and life sciences, real estate, technology, retail, manufacturing, transportation, sports and entertainment. His recent representations include reorganizing the Ruby Tuesday casual-dining chain with more than 200 restaurants through a debt-for-equity transaction with its secured lenders, implemented through a chapter 11 plan confirmed after only four months in bankruptcy; counseling technology entrepreneur Yueting “YT” Jia, the founder of mobility ecosystem company Faraday Future, in the successful restructuring of more than $3 billion in debt held almost entirely by creditors located in the People’s Republic of China (this representation was recognized at Global M&A Network’s 13th Annual Turnaround Atlas Awards as “Cross-Border Turnaround of the Year”); advising a creditors’ committee in connection with a successful hospital reorganization; and completing a § 363 sale of a $100 million Class A commercial office property over the objections of co-owners. He also has served as principal counsel to China Export & Credit Insurance Corp. and its Chinese policyholders and clients in complex U.S. insolvency matters. Mr. Pagay has lectured both in the U.S. and internationally regarding a variety of legal issues, including cross-border transactions and insolvencies. He has been named a “Super Lawyer” in the field of Bankruptcy & Creditor/Debtor Rights every year since 2009 in a peer survey conducted by Law & Politics and the publishers of Los Angeles magazine, and he is rated AV-Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell. In addition, he has been listed among The Best Lawyers in America in the practice areas of Bankruptcy and Creditor/Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law and Litigation – Bankruptcy. Mr. Pagay received his B.A. in 1989 from Yale University and his J.D. in 1994 from the University of Southern California.