Stephen V. Falanga has over 17 years experience
practicing in the commercial law area and has
developed significant expertise in all aspects of
insolvency law. He represents corporations,
insurance companies, financial institutions, real
estate developers, and landlords as well as
individuals in all aspects of commercial law and
finance. As a partner, Mr. Falanga heads the Firm’s
Bankruptcy, Reorganization and Creditor’s Rights
practice group.
A
versatile practitioner, Mr. Falanga advocates for
clients in both transactional and litigation matters
as
the need arises. He has handled all types of
corporate work in the commercial law field,
including asset sales and dispositions, secured
transactions, loan and mortgage financings, and
other credit related transactions. He has excelled
equally in the courtroom, where he has represented
debtors and creditors in bankruptcy proceedings and
commenced and defended complex commercial and
bankruptcy litigation in the Federal Courts of New
York, New Jersey and Delaware.
A
Connell Foley summer associate in 1991, Mr. Falanga
officially joined the Firm in 1993 as an associate
after completing a one-year clerkship with the
Honorable William F. Tuohey, a United States
Bankruptcy Judge
in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the
District of New Jersey. He was elected to the
partnership of the Firm in January 2000.
While a student at Boston College Law School,
Mr. Falanga was invited to write for the Law
School’s
Uniform Commercial Code Reporter-Digest, a scholarly
publication and practitioner’s aid for accessing
digested opinions and commentary regarding cases
dealing with the U.C.C. As a third-year law
student, he was elected by his peers to serve as
Editor-in-Chief of the Digest
and assumed responsibility for overseeing its
research, production and administration. Upon
graduating from Law School Stephen was awarded the
Cornelius J. Moynihan Commencement Award, given to a
law
student who has exhibited both scholarship and
co-curricular leadership.
Mr. Falanga has played an important role in the
growth and success of Connell Foley. He served on
the Firm’s Hiring Committee for 8 years and was its
Chair for 3 years. During Mr. Falanga’s tenure he
assisted with
the Firm’s hiring of more then 80 attorneys. He has
supervised the Firm’s Summer Associate Program,
coordinated the Firm’s lateral hiring and structured
the Firm’s associate training and mentoring
programs.
He has also served as a member of the Firm’s
Marketing Committee.
Mr. Falanga is a frequent author and lecturer on all
aspects of commercial law and bankruptcy.
Serves as national bankruptcy counsel to
a number of major corporations including
one of the largest manufacturers of
infant and toddler products and supplies
in the United States and one of the
largest providers of satellite services
in the world;
•
Represented one of the largest suppliers
of merchandising, assembly and
installation services in the United
States as a chapter 11 debtor;
•
Served as co-counsel to the debtor in
one of the largest chapter 11 hospital
bankruptcy cases ever filed in the District
of New Jersey;
•
Represents one of the largest insurance
companies in the United States in a
complex, asbestos-driven chapter 11
reorganization of a national sheet and
tile flooring manufacturer;
•
Successfully prosecuted significant
fraudulent transfer and RICO-based
creditors' rights action;
•
Regularly defends all types of
preference and fraudulent transfer
bankruptcy litigation;
•
Represented successful stalking horse
bidder in bankruptcy acquisition of
major pigment and dye manufacturer.
Speaker, "Survivor: Collecting
in Bankruptcy Proceedings" at
the American Trucking Association's
Litigation Forum for Motor Carrier
General Counsels in Vancouver,
British Columbia (July 2009)
•
Panel speaker, “Competing Claims of
Creditors in Connection With Sales of
Assets Under Section 363 of the
Bankruptcy Code” at the American
Bankruptcy Institute’s (ABI) Winter
Leadership Conference, Tuscon, Arizona
(2008)
•
Named one of New Jersey’s “40 under
40” top business leaders by NJBIZ
Magazine (2006)
•
Awarded the Essex County Bar
Association’s Special Merit Award for
volunteer work on Law Day (2001)
•
Master, Bankruptcy
Inn of Court, Chapter of the American
Inns of Court
