Mr. Joseph L. Schwartz

Joseph L. Schwartz is chair of the Bankruptcy & Corporate Restructuring Group at Riker Danzig LLP in Madison, N.J. He has more than 30 years of experience in commercial bankruptcy and state court insolvency matters, with a focus on corporate restructurings and reorganizations. He also has experience in state and federal receiverships and assignments for the benefit of creditors, as well as out-of-court corporate restructurings, turnarounds, workouts, wind-downs, dissolutions and commercial litigation. Mr. Schwartz represents a diverse array of clients, including, indenture trustees, debtors, official and ad hoc creditors’ committees, insurance companies, banks, other secured lenders, chapter 7 and chapter 11 trustees, trade creditors, third-party purchasers and landlords. He also serves as one of the subchapter V trustees in New Jersey, having been appointed by the Office of the U.S. Trustee under the Small Business Reorganization Act, and regularly serves as a mediator in bankruptcy cases in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey. Mr. Schwartz regularly both prosecutes and defends avoidance actions on behalf of various clients, including preference and fraudulent conveyance lawsuits. He has experience and has taken a leading role in representing various constituents in numerous bankruptcy cases and insolvency-related matters, including complex cases involving the construction, healthcare, mass tort, commodities, mining and metals, real estate, retail, apparel, steel, airline, manufacturing, distribution, telecommunications and technology sectors. Mr. Schwartz is the immediate past president and is the chairman of the New Jersey Turnaround Management Association. He also serves on the Turnaround Management Association’s Global Membership Council, which addresses global membership goals and strategies for TMA. Mr. Schwartz is a member of ABI and various other insolvency-related associations. In addition, he has served on the New Jersey Supreme Court District V-C Ethics Committee (western Essex County), and he frequently lectures and writes on various insolvency-related topics. Mr. Schwartz received his B.S. in accounting from Rutgers University in 1988 and his J.D. cum laude in 1991 from Suffolk University Law School, where he served as a member of the Suffolk University Law Review.