Robert Zadek focuses his practice on matters involving factoring, fintech, reverse factoring, supply-chain finance, asset-based lending, purchase order financing, loan participations, sales-based financing, commercial loan documentation, trade finance and letters of credit, loan workouts, bankruptcy, and alternative finance.

Mr. Zadek was an attorney advisor on the American Law Institute Committee to Revise the Restatement of the Law of Suretyship, an advisor to the Drafting Committee on Revision of Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code and is an attorney observer to the Drafting Committee for the Uniform Commercial Financing Disclosure Act, representing the interests of the International Factoring Association.

Mr. Zadek’s professional memberships:

  • Chair of the State Bar of California UCC Committee
  • Member of the Executive Committee of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of California
  • Charter Member of the Commercial Financial Services Committee (“CFS”) (renamed Commercial Finance Committee)
  • Vice Chair of the Non-Standard Collateral Financing Subcommittee of CFS
  • Founder and Chair of the Loan Documentation Subcommittee of CFS
  • Chair of the 1,800 attorney-member CFS
  • Member (since 1974) of the Association of Commercial Finance Attorneys
  • Charter Fellow of the American College of Commercial Finance Attorneys and member of its Board of Regents
  • Co-General Counsel to the IFA
  • Vice President and Board Member to the American Factoring Association

Since 1998 Mr. Zadek has been the featured presenter or co-presenter at the Annual Convention of the International Factoring Association (“IFA”), the largest factoring trade association in the world, offering a ninety-minute presentation of “Factoring in the Courts”, a summary of relevant litigation affecting the factoring industry. Every year, the IFA offers Mr. Zadek’s two-day, 14 hour “Law and Business of Factoring” course, attended by seasoned factoring executives, newcomers to the industry and their counsel. The forms which Mr. Zadek distributes at this presentation have become the industry standard.

Mr. Zadek is regularly retained as an expert witness in approximately 45 factoring and commercial loan litigations, and has testified at jury and bench trials on many occasions.

Mr. Zadek was the recipient of the IFA’s inaugural Bert Goldberg Memorial Award at the May, 2022 IFA Convention, recognizing his unique contributions to the factoring industry.

Mr. Zadek is AV Preeminent rated by Martindale Hubbell and recognized as a “Top Rated Lawyer” in the area of Bank & Finance in 2013 and 2014. He is also recognized as a 2025 “Best Lawyer in America” in the areas of Asset-Based Lending, Banking & Finance Law and Equipment Finance Law, an honor he has received since 2007. Mr. Zadek has been selected by Super Lawyer Magazine as a “Northern California Super Lawyer” five times and as a “Northern California Super Lawyer, Corporate Counsel Edition.”

Mr. Zadek created and hosted “The Bob Zadek Show,” which was broadcast live every Sunday on AM radio, after which it was added to his podcast.

Mr. Zadek’s column, “You Be The Judge,” was a regular feature in The Secured Lender, the journal of the Commercial Finance Association. He co-authored “Insurance Considerations in Asset-Based Financing—A Transactional Guide,” published by Matthew Bender & Company and contributed to David King Keller’s, “The Associate As Rainmaker, Building Your Business Brain.”

He was named “Educator of the Year” by the Commercial Finance Association for his course, “Negotiating, Documenting and Administrating Asset-Based Loans.” In addition, he teaches workshops across the country on loan documentation issues.

Mr. Zadek is certified as a Certified Public Accountant by the New York State Education Department.

Governmental Affairs

  • Represented the International Factoring Association on six multi-day educational trips to Washington D.C. to explain factoring to Members of the House, Senators and regulators in the Executive Branch

Mr. Zadek earned his J.D. and LL.M from New York University School of Law. He earned his B.S. in Accounting from Syracuse University.

  • Board of Directors, Commercial Law Amicus Initiative
  • Past Chair, Commercial Financial Services Committee of the Section on Business Law of the American Bar Association
  • Executive Committee, Business Law Section of the State Bar of California
    • Chair, Uniform Commercial Code Committee
  • Past Faculty Member, Rutgers University School of Law, taught a course on secured transactions.
  • Former Faculty Member, Hofstra and Adelphi Universities, over a decade

Additional Specialties

Bankruptcy
Workouts and Restructuring