Kim P. Gage

 

Senior Partner

 

 

535 Anton Boulevard, Suite 1000

Costa Mesa, CA 92626-1977

Phone: 714.431.1090

Fax:     714.431.1119

E-mail: kgage@cookseylaw.com

 

 

 

 

Kim Gage is a partner in the firm’s financial services team.  He has been a driving force in expanding the firm from a local Southern California firm to a western regional firm.

 

Mr. Gage represents financial institutions in all phases of the lending relationship, including documentation, establishing policies and procedures, workout, litigation to recover the collateral and to enforce the lenders’ other rights, and bankruptcy.

 

Mr. Gage has extensive experience in the automotive finance industry.  He has represented automotive lenders and truck lenders in both commercial and consumer for over 30 years.  He and his team are western regional counsel for numerous automotive lenders and truck lenders, including Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, Daimler Truck Financial, GM Financial, and TD Auto Finance.  Mr. Gage and his team also represent Wells Fargo Auto Finance, Wells Fargo Dealer Services, Chase Auto Finance, VW Credit, Inc., and Credit Acceptance Corporation. 

 

Mr. Gage and his team have extensive experience in enforcing automotive and truck lenders’ rights, having litigated dealership cases in the 1980’s, the 1990’s, the automotive meltdown of 2007-2008 and currently.  Mr. Gage specialized in workouts of dealership loans.  Mr. Gage has represented automotive lenders in literally hundreds of automobile dealership workout and other dealer default cases.

 

Mr. Gage handles all aspects of auto and truck lenders’ relationships with their dealers.  He has extensively experience in documenting loans from automotive and truck lenders to their dealers.  In the 1980’s, Mr. Gage participated in the overhaul of Chrysler Financial’s wholesale/floorplan lending documents, and later in the overhaul of the Mercedes-Benz Financial and Daimler Truck Financial commercial lending and floorplan documents.  When GM Financial entered the automotive wholesale floorplan financing business, it turned to Mr. Gage and his team to create a complete set of wholesale lending/floorplan documents for use with its dealer body.  Since then, Mr. Gage has created wholesale/floorplan lending documents for both new motor vehicle and used motor vehicle lenders.  When GM Financial entered the fleet leasing/lending business, it again turned to Mr. Gage and his team to prepare a complete set of commercial leasing and lending documents.

 

He lectures frequently on secured creditors’ rights and effective enforcement of those rights, pre-litigation, in litigation, and in bankruptcy, and the use of dealership loan workouts to avoid losses.

 

Mr. Gage joined the firm in 1978, and has been a partner since 1987.  Admitted to practice in California state and federal courts in 1978, Mr. Gage and his team have handled legal matters, sophisticated litigation, sophisticated workouts, and Chapter 11 bankruptcies throughout the Western United States, including Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Mr. Gage graduated from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) cum laude, with a Bachelor of Arts in economics, and obtained his Juris Doctorate from California Western School of Law in 1978.