Joseph Braunstein

Senior Partner / Bankruptcy

Boston Office

617-880-3510

617-692-3510 fax

jbraunstein@riemerlaw.com

Joe, the chairperson of the firm’s bankruptcy department, is a widely acknowledged expert on bankruptcy law. He is one of only 500 Fellows nationwide to be elected to the prestigious American College of Bankruptcy, in which he is a member of the Pro Bono Committee. Election to the organization is by one’s peers and is based on demonstrating the highest level of character, integrity, professional expertise, and leadership.

Joe has held bar-related leadership positions and has received other acknowledgements as well for his professional achievements. In 1998, Joe was the first-ever recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bankruptcy Law Committee of the Boston Bar Association. He is a long-time member of the Board of Governors and a past president of the Commercial Law League of America and is a past chairperson of the Bankruptcy Law Committee of the Massachusetts Bar Association.

Joe continues in full-time, active practice. He has been a member of the Panel of Chapter 7 Trustees for the District of Massachusetts, Eastern Division, ever since the program began in 1979. He has been annually reappointed by the Office of the United States Trustee, which is a division of the U.S. Department of Justice. As a panel member, Joe monitors, supervises, and administers hundreds of bankruptcy cases every year.

Representative Transactions

• Counsel to the Unsecured Creditors’ Committee in a Chapter 11 case involving a major, privately held Texas energy company that was approximately $1 billion in debt
• Counsel to the Unsecured Creditors’ Committee in a Chapter 11 case of a Missouri-based shoe corporation. Assisted in negotiating an acquisition by a third party, which permitted the continuation of the business
• Chapter 7 Trustee and Counsel to the Trustee in a proceeding involving the liquidation of a substantial mortgage servicing business and the owner-holder of a number of residential mortgages. The liquidation involved negotiating and assigning servicing rights as well as disposing of the mortgages the company owned
• Chapter 7 Trustee and Counsel to the Trustee in the liquidation of a publicly held chain of computer retail stores. The case involved a substantial preference recovery
• Counsel to the Creditors’ Committee, assisting in negotiating and confirming the reorganization and sale of a Virginia shoe company that was a major supplier of military footwear

Cases Of Interest

• Braunstein v. McCabe, 571 F.3d 109 (1st Cir. 2009).

In The News

• Debtor doesn't have right to jury trial in action seeking turnover of property - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit recently held that debtors do not have a right to jury trials in actions by trustees seeking the turnover of property during bankruptcy proceedings. Mark Corner and Peter Sutton, who represented the trustee in this case, said the holding makes it easier in turnover cases for bankruptcy trustees to pursue assets of debtors and to cut down on delays and expenses in bankruptcy proceedings.
  The United States Law Week, July 14, 2009

Affiliations

American Bankruptcy Institute

American Bar Association

American College of Bankruptcy

Boston Bar Association

Commercial Law League of America

Massachusetts Bar Association

Admissions

Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1953

U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, 1954

U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit, 1954

U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas, 1984

U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit, 1995

Education

Portia Law School, LL.B., 1953

Suffolk University, A.A., 1950