Practice Admissions: United States Courts of the Central, Southern and Eastern Districts in California and all court of the State of California

Robert E. Huttenhoff is a member of the firm’s Bankruptcy Department and is a resident in the Irvine office. Mr. Huttenhoff concentrates his practice on complex bankruptcy matters including business reorganizations, creditors’ rights, representations of trustees and bankruptcy related litigation. Mr. Huttenhoff is admitted to practice before the United States Courts of the Central, Southern and Eastern Districts in California and all court of the State of California.

Mr. Huttenhoff received a Bachelor of the Arts degree in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1996. He later received his Juris Doctorate degree from Whittier Law School in 1999. During his tenure in law school, Mr. Huttenhoff served two semesters as a judicial extern to the Honorable Lynne Riddle (U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California) and one semester with the Honorable John E. Ryan (U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California). During this time, Mr. Huttenhoff was also awarded a Medal of Excellence from the American Bankruptcy Institute in connection with his legal studies. Upon graduating from law school, Mr. Huttenhoff was hired by the Honorable John E. Ryan to serve a judicial clerkship with the U. S. Bankruptcy, Central District of California. In doing so, Mr. Huttenhoff served as the judicial law clerk to the Honorable Lynn Riddle, Honorable James N. Barr and Honorable Robert W. Alberts. Mr. Huttenhoff was hired by Shulman Hodges and Bastian in 2001 immediately following his judicial clerkship and has remained an active member of the bankruptcy and litigation department ever since. Active in his professional community, Mr. Huttenhoff has spoken and presented continuing education seminars on various topics related to bankruptcy and bankruptcy related litigation. Mr. Huttenhoff is currently a member of the Orange County Bar Association, Orange County Bankruptcy Forum and Federal Bar Association.

In one of the more newsworthy cases, Mr. Huttenhoff represented the Chapter 7 Trustee for the bankruptcy estate of the former professional baseball player, Lenny “Nails” Dykstra. In 2011, Mr. Huttenhoff was successful in revoking Mr. Dykstra’s bankruptcy discharge based on the documented evidence of the his “bad acts” during the bankruptcy proceeding. The revocation of the discharge prevented the debtor from discharging approximately $15 millions of dollars in debt. In 2011, the United States Attorney criminally prosecuted Mr. Dykstra for these same acts – which constituted bankruptcy crimes pursuant to Title 18 of the United States Code. In 2012, Mr. Dykstra plead guilty to various bankruptcy crimes and was sentenced to six and a half months in prison.