Mr. Ziehl has been a managing partner of the firm since it was founded in 1983, overseeing its growth into the nation’s largest law firm specializing in insolvency matters. Admitted to the bar in both California and New York, he has a national bankruptcy and litigation practice, specializing in complex bankruptcy proceedings and business litigation, with significant trial experience in both state and federal courts.
Mr. Ziehl has represented debtors, creditor committees, bondholders, trustees, examiners, and equity holders in many of the firm’s most notable engagements, including the high-profile chapter 11 cases of Lehman Brothers, Adelphia Communications, American Suzuki Motor Corporation and TK Holdings (Takata), as well as numerous out-of-court workouts. He is or has been involved in many other significant chapter 11 cases, including Washington Mutual, Mike Tyson, Webvan Group, Chrysler Corporation and Polaroid Corporation. In addition, he currently serves as the liquidation trustee and disbursing agent for SFX Liquidating Trust and as chair of the trustees overseeing the liquidations of Adelphia Communications and Physiotherapy Associates. He has also represented the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees as amicus curiae in the U.S. Supreme Court as well as on numerous appeals in federal courts of appeal and state supreme and appellate courts.
Mr. Ziehl currently serves as a member of the board of trustees of the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society, the advisory board of the Loyola Law School Advocacy Institute, and the board of directors of the Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society. He is a former chair of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Litigation Section and the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference Central District Lawyers Representatives.
Mr. Ziehl is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and received his J.D. from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles, where he was a member of the Loyola Law Review editorial staff. Following law school, he clerked for the Hon. Albert Lee Stephens, Jr., Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Mr. Ziehl has long held an “AV Preeminent Peer Rating,” Martindale-Hubbell's highest recognition for ethical standards and legal ability; has been voted by his business litigation peers as a Super Lawyer since 2004 (Los Angeles Magazine); and was selected by Best Lawyers in America for his work in Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law as well as Commercial Litigation. In 2014, the Century City Bar Association honored him as its “Bankruptcy Lawyer of the Year.”
News
•Twenty-One PSZJ Attorneys Named 2020 Southern California “Super Lawyers” January 15, 2020
•PSZJ Named to 2020 Edition of Benchmark Litigation California, Dean Ziehl Named “Litigation Star September 26, 2019
•PSZJ Attorneys Named in Best Lawyers in America August 15, 2019
•Twenty-One PSZJ Attorneys Named 2019 Southern California “Super Lawyers” January 30, 2019
•PSZJ Attorneys Named in Best Lawyers in America August 15, 2018
•Twenty PSZJ Attorneys Named 2018 Southern California “Super Lawyers” January 31, 2018
•Thirty-Five PSZJ Attorneys Named Best Lawyers in America August 15, 2017
•Eighteen PSZJ Attorneys Named 2017 Southern California “Super Lawyers” January 25, 2017
•Nineteen PSZJ Attorneys Named Best Lawyers in America August 2016
•Seventeen PSZJ Attorneys Named Best Lawyers in America August 17, 2015
•Thirteen PSZJ Attorneys Named Best Lawyers in America August 2014
•Dean Ziehl: Bankruptcy Lawyer of the Year Century City Bar Association April 9, 2014
•Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones: Five M&A Advisor Turnaround Awards February 2014
•Ten Southern California Super Lawyers at Pachulski Stang Los Angeles magazine, February 2014
•American Suzuki Swiftly Glides to Plan Confirmation March 6, 2013
•Eight Southern California Super Lawyers at Pachulski Stang Los Angeles magazine, January 2013
•Eight Southern California Super Lawyers at Pachulski Los Angeles Magazine, March 2008
Fiduciary Engagements
•Litigation trustee:
•SFX Litigation Trust . Litigation trustee and disbursing agent for SFX, a live events, ticketing, and digital entertainment conglomerate that owned or operated electronic dance music festivals and concerts worldwide
•Physiotherapy Associates . Chair of the board of trustees overseeing the litigation trust of Physiotherapy Associates, the largest pure-play provider of outpatient therapy services in the United States with over 1500 clinicians and 581 rehabilitation, orthotics, and prosthetics clinics in 29 states and the District of Columbia
•Adelphia Communications . Chair of the board of trustees overseeing the liquidation of the Adelphia Communications, the fifth largest cable company in the U.S. before filing for bankruptcy after accounting scandals revealed $2.3 billion of off-balance-sheet debt, and the prosecution of litigation claims held by the Adelphia Recovery Trust, a public Delaware grantor trust
Clerkships
•Law clerk, Chief Judge Albert Lee Stephens, Jr. (C.D. Cal.)
