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Inside the bankruptcy practice of Dean M. Dinner, who spent decades building a namesake Scottsdale bankruptcy firm before merging it into Sacks Tierney, a 65-year-old Arizona institution — bringing his creditor-debtor practice into a firm with six decades of its own history.
Dean M. Dinner — At a Glance
| ATTORNEY | Dean M. Dinner |
| FIRM | Sacks Tierney, P.A. (formerly a name partner at Nussbaum, Gillis & Dinner, P.C., which merged into Sacks Tierney in 2019) |
| ADMITTED | Arizona (46 years in practice) |
| CERTIFICATION | State Bar of Arizona Certified Bankruptcy Specialist |
| FOCUS | Bankruptcy law, creditor-debtor rights, workouts, commercial transactions, and commercial litigation |
| OFFICE | 4250 N. Drinkwater Blvd., Scottsdale, AZ 85251 |
| CONTACT | (480) 425-2600 · sackstierney.com |
Origin: From a Namesake Firm to a Six-Decade Institution
Dean Dinner built his career as a name partner at Nussbaum, Gillis & Dinner, P.C., a Scottsdale firm that Ranking Arizona recognized as the state’s No. 5 bankruptcy law firm before it merged into Sacks Tierney, P.A. in 2019. Sacks Tierney itself was founded in 1960 and has operated continuously in Scottsdale for more than six decades, growing into a roughly 32-to-38-attorney full-service firm recognized repeatedly as a top-ranked Arizona firm in its size category by Ranking Arizona.
Practice Areas
Dinner’s practice covers bankruptcy law, creditor-debtor rights, workouts, commercial transactions, and commercial litigation. His caseload has included representation of individual and business debtors, secured creditors, debtor-in-possession lenders, unsecured creditor committees, surety companies, and bankruptcy trustees across Chapter 7, 11, and 13 matters spanning industries from medicine and law to real estate, construction, manufacturing, trucking, airlines, food production, and multi-tiered marketing.
Track Record
Sacks Tierney’s Corporate Restructuring and Bankruptcy Group, of which Dinner is part, has confirmed plans of reorganization for a luxury home and golf course development in Flagstaff and a Class A office building in Scottsdale, negotiated a discounted cash payoff of $31 million in senior living facility debt with a full release of guarantees, and confirmed a contested Chapter 11 cram-down plan that significantly reduced a secured creditor’s $21 million claim while allowing the debtor’s interest holders to retain their stake.
Past-Results Disclaimer: These are the firm’s own case summaries, and Awesome Attorneys could not confirm Dinner’s specific individual role in each matter. Every case is different, and no past result guarantees a similar outcome in any future matter.
Client Voice
One peer endorsement, from an attorney who worked alongside Dinner for a number of years, described him as intelligent, diligent, hard-working, and ethical, adding that he never lets ego interfere with his representation of a client and called him a credit to the profession.
Community
Dinner’s decades-long partnership at his own namesake firm, later merged into an established institution rather than dissolved, reflects a career built on sustained local reputation within Arizona’s bankruptcy bar specifically.
Recognition
Dinner holds Arizona’s Board-Certified Bankruptcy Specialist designation — a genuine, examination-based credential. He has been named a Super Lawyer for Bankruptcy and an Arizona’s Best Lawyer (Bankruptcy) by Best Lawyers in America in multiple editions through the early 2010s, and has held Martindale-Hubbell’s AV Preeminent peer-review rating since 1998.
The Arizona Legal Backdrop
What follows is general legal information, not legal advice.
Bankruptcy itself is federal law (11 U.S.C.), but Arizona is an “opt-out” exemption state under A.R.S. § 33-1133, requiring debtors filing in Arizona to use the state’s own exemption schedule. Arizona’s homestead exemption, A.R.S. § 33-1101, currently protects up to $400,000 of home equity and adjusts annually for inflation — directly relevant to the individual debtors and guarantors that frequently appear alongside the business debtors in Dinner’s caseload.
The Awesome Attorneys Assessment
Dinner’s genuine strength is depth across both sides of the bankruptcy table — debtors and creditors, individuals and businesses — built over more than four decades, now backed by the resources of a 65-year-old, full-service Arizona institution rather than a smaller boutique.
The honest caveat: Awesome Attorneys’ most recent independently verifiable peer-recognition data for Dinner specifically dates to the early 2010s; prospective clients should confirm his current standing and availability directly, since firm-level recognition (Sacks Tierney’s own rankings) doesn’t necessarily reflect an individual attorney’s most recent honors.
Methodology & Sourcing
This profile was researched in August 2026 from sackstierney.com (firm site, practice group page), AZ Big Media and Daily Independent coverage of the 2019 Sacks Tierney merger, Super Lawyers, and Avvo. Sacks Tierney, P.A. did not commission, review, or pay for this profile.
Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice
This profile is an independent editorial article published by Awesome Attorneys. Awesome Attorneys does not endorse, recommend, or warrant any lawyer or law firm profiled on this site, and inclusion in this series is not paid placement.