Shawn M. Christianson focuses her practice on insolvency, receiverships, and complex litigation with an emphasis on technology related issues. She represents financial institutions, secured and unsecured creditors, technology companies, receivers, and bankruptcy trustees. Her practice spans the state, federal and bankruptcy courts, as well as out of court proceedings and mediation. She argued, and prevailed at every level from the trial court through the Ninth Circuit, a seminal case on the topic of perfection of security interests in unregistered copyrights, In re: World Auxiliary Power.

Ms. Christianson is a former member of Buchalter’s Board of Directors, as well as the former Managing Shareholder of the Firm’s San Francisco office. Ms. Christianson was elected to and served two terms on the Board of Directors as a Director-At-Large of the International Women’s Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation and is a former Co-Chair of the Northern California Network of IWIRC.

She has served on several boards and committees, including the California Receiver’s Forum, the Bay Area Chapter of the California Receiver’s Forum, where she also served as Vice President, the Board of Directors of the Bay Area Bankruptcy Forum (“BABF”), BABF’s Program and Finance Committees and the organizing committee of the California Bankruptcy Forum’s Fifth Annual Conference. She was appointed to a three-year term as a Lawyer Representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference and served on the Northern District of California’s Local Rules Committee which addressed both the District and Bankruptcy Court’s Local Rules. She is a trained mediator and has acted as a Resolution Advocate on the Bankruptcy Dispute Resolution Panel in the Northern District of California since that Panel’s creation. She served as both Chair and Vice-Chair of the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Commercial Law and Bankruptcy section, and was a founding member of the Barrister Club’s Speakers Bureau. She is a frequent lecturer and author, and has been profiled in the Receivership News.

Ms. Christianson served two terms as the Mayor of the Town of Hillsborough, California, including leading the city through the first year of the pandemic. She has been an active participant in numerous community and civic organizations. She was elected in November 2005 to the Hillsborough City School District’s Board of Trustees, became President of that Board in 2009, and served on the Hillsborough City Council from 2012-2020, during which time she was both Vice Mayor and Mayor.

Ms. Christianson was recognized as 2024 Lawdragon 500 leading U.S. Bankruptcy & Restructuring Lawyers, an honor she has received since 2020. Additionally, Ms. Christianson, who is AV Preeminent rated, has been selected as Super Lawyers Top Rated Lawyer in Northern California since 2005 and as one of Super Lawyers Top Women Attorneys Northern California, an honor she has received since 2016, and to Martindale-Hubbell’s Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers. She has been recognized as a Best Lawyer in America in the areas of Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights and Insolvency and Reorganization Law, an honor she has received since 2016. Additionally, in 2016, Ms. Christianson was selected by the Cal Alumni Association Board of Directors and the UC Berkeley Foundation Board of Trustees to receive the Spirit of 1868 Volunteer Award, which acknowledges alumni and friends who have demonstrated outstanding volunteer leadership and accomplishments in support of the university’s philanthropic and outreach efforts.

 

Ms. Christianson earned her J.D. at The University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, where she was on the editorial board of the UC Law SF (fka Hastings) Journal of Communications and Entertainment Law. She earned her B.S. magna cum laude at Boston College.

  • Guest Lecturer UC Berkeley Rhetoric class- Language and the Law
  • Mayor of the Town of Hillsborough, California, 2018-2020
  • Elected in November 2005 to the Hillsborough City School District’s Board of Trustees, serving as President of that Board in 2009, serving on the Hillsborough City Council commencing in 2012, and acting as Hillsborough’s Vice Mayor from 2016-2018.
  • Founding member, Barrister Club’s Speakers Bureau
  • Chair and Vice- Chair, Bar Association of San Francisco’s Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Section
  •  Served on several boards and committees, including the California Receiver’s Forum, the Bay Area Chapter of the California Receiver’s Forum, where she also served as Vice President, the Board of Directors of the Bay Area Bankruptcy Forum (“BABF”), BABF’s Program and Finance Committees and the organizing committee of the California Bankruptcy Forum’s Fifth Annual Conference.

Additional Specialties

Bankruptcy