Dennis B. Arnold is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. A member of the firm’s Real Estate Department, Global Finance Group, and Business Restructuring and Reorganization Group, he has had extensive experience in all aspects of commercial and residential real estate and finance, as well as workouts, bankruptcies and debt restructurings. Mr. Arnold is a nationally recognized expert in real estate, finance, insolvency and commercial law, including significant expertise in Uniform Commercial Code remedies and mezzanine loan foreclosures and unparalled expertise in mortgage remedies and foreclosures. Mr. Arnold's primary areas of concentration include real estate, banking, workouts, bankruptcy, debt restructure and finance (especially Articles 3, 5 and 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code). He is also a noted authority on California’s “one action” and “anti-deficiency” laws and successfully briefed and argued the seminal Wozab, Western Security Bank and Union Bank v. Dreyfuss cases before the California Supreme Court. Mr. Arnold is also a recognized authority on secured transactions, the law of guaranties and letters of credit.
Mr. Arnold has been ranked in the first tier of real estate lawyers by Chambers USA for many years. In 2013, he was named by The Real Property Law Section of the State Bar of California as the first ever “Real Property Person of the Year”. Best Lawyers named Mr. Arnold as “Lawyer of the Year” for Real Estate in Los Angeles in 2010 and the Los Angeles County Bar Association's Real Property Section honored him with its Outstanding Real Estate Lawyer Award in 2009.
Mr. Arnold received his J.D. degree from Yale Law School in 1975. He has lectured extensively for many organizations, including the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, the American Bar Association, the American Bankruptcy Institute, the Practicing Law Institute, California CEB, the Real Property Section and the Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, the California Bankers Association, the Banking Law Institute and The Financial Lawyers Conference. Mr. Arnold is a member of The American Law Institute, the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers, the American Bankruptcy Institute, and the Board of Governors of The Financial Lawyers Conference and a former member of the Executive Committees of both the Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Section and the Real Property Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association.
Mr. Arnold is the author of “Guaranties of Indebtedness under California Law: Issues in Drafting and Enforcement” (California Real Property Journal, Spring, 1983), “Anti-Deficiency in the Eighties: The Sanction Aspect, Fair Value and Where The Action Is (And Isn't)” (California Real Property Journal, Spring, 1987), co-author of “The U.C.C. Mixed Collateral Statute - Has Paradise Really Been Lost” (36 U.C.L.A. Rev. 1, 1988), co-author of “Western Security Bank Case Clouds Use of Letters of Credit As Security Enhancement” (California Real Property Journal, Summer, 1993) and author of “Western Security Bank, Part Deux: The Empire Strikes Out” (California Real Property Journal, Winter, 1994).
Mr. Arnold also acted as an Advisor to The American Law Institute on the Restatement of the Law Third, Suretyship and Guaranty (ALI 1996) published by The American Law Institute, and drafted California Civil Code Section 2856, which authorizes waivers of defenses by guarantors.
