Mary Debora Lane

1950 - 2019

July 13, 1950 - June 11, 2019 Mary Debora Lane was born in Bayonne, New Jersey. She was the only child of Sydney and Saul Lane. She attended Bayonne High School, graduated at the top of her class, and moved to New York to attend Barnard College where she graduated with a B.A. in psychology in 1971. She then began graduate school in psychology at Harvard, where she met her future husband, David Gordon, in 1971 through their shared love of bridge. Mary then moved to Los Angeles in 1972, began a career in social work, and pivoted to a law career, entering UCLA's law school in 1973 and graduating with honors in 1976. Mary then joined the Loeb & Loeb firm and became a bankruptcy partner in 1983. In 1978, she married David Gordon, and they began renovating their dream family home nestled in the Hollywood Hills. Her first child, Spencer, was born in 1992, followed by her fraternal twin daughters, Charlotte and Roxanne, in 1994. Mary chose to pause her successful legal career to devote her full-time efforts to raising her family, at which she excelled. In 2009, as her children reached the end of their high school years, she returned to practicing law (Pachulski Stang Ziehl and Jones, followed by Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP), then shifted to investment banking with Wilshire Pacific Capital Advisors LLC. She became extremely active in the field of health care bankruptcy law, held a board position at the Turnaround Membership Association, committee membership at the American Bar Association, and was nationally recognized for her expertise. Mary and David Gordon divorced in 2018. Mary's outside interests were many and diverse. She was a fitness fanatic, an avid skier, and a particularly masterful poker player. She loved to travel and visited Switzerland, Japan, and India (twice) over the last several years. On June 11, Mary died unexpectedly of a heart attack, devastating everyone who knows and loves her. She is survived by her three children, who keenly miss her unconditional love and support, contagious laugh and eccentric sense of humor, devotion to family, and effortless humility and grace. Memorial services have been scheduled for 5:00 p.m. on June 24 at The Beach Club.