PRACTICE FOCUS

Joseph Bellinger has over 25 years of experience as a bankruptcy attorney and has represented virtually every party in interest in Chapter 11 business bankruptcy cases, including Debtors, equity holders, secured lenders, Committees of Unsecured Creditors, Chapter 11 trustees, and purchasers of the Debtor’s business. Mr. Bellinger brings to each case his breadth of experience litigating cases in bankruptcy courts, federal district courts, and state courts as an aggressive litigator and an effective negotiator. Mr. Bellinger works with his clients to evaluate the costs and benefits of alternative strategies in order to develop a strategy that his clients understand and can afford, and that will lead to a favorable outcome at trial or in a negotiated settlement.

Mr. Bellinger has extensive experience representing Chapter 11 trustees and has been appointed to serve as a Chapter 11 trustee in numerous bankruptcy proceedings. In addition, Mr. Bellinger served on the panel of Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustees for the District of Maryland for over 20 years. In that capacity, he conducted liquidations of companies in virtually every industry sector, including heavy and light manufacturing, commercial and residential real estate, multi-unit housing, custom home builders, construction, custom home and office furnishings, restaurants, bars, retail, insurance, and intellectual property.

Mr. Bellinger also represents his clients in federal and state courts in a wide variety of complex business and financial disputes over contract rights, fraud, negligent or gross mismanagement, breach of fiduciary duty and other business torts, and director or officer, or equity holder’s rights and liability. While most of his cases are in federal and state courts in the Mid-Atlantic region, he has represented clients in federal and state courts throughout the United States.

Joseph J. Bellinger has received the required training under Title 17 of the Maryland Rules which govern the prerequisites for serving as a court-appointed mediator. Mr. Bellinger prefers facilitative mediation, in which the mediator encourages the parties to communicate with one another in order to understand the perspectives of the other parties, and when possible, to reach an agreement that the parties themselves have formulated.

POINTS OF DISTINCTION

• Member of the Maryland Program for Mediator Excellence
• Received the highest professional (AV-Preeminent) rating from his peers, as reported by Martindale-Hubbell.
• Selected as a Maryland Super Lawyer every year since its inception, from 2007 through 2017. Super Lawyers is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement.

SPEECHES

Mr. Bellinger is a frequent lecturer on Bankruptcy Code and Procedure. In 2016, he served on the “Involuntary Bankruptcies” panel at the Maryland Bankruptcy Bar Association’s Annual Spring Break Conference, which was moderated by the Honorable Nancy V. Alquist, Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Maryland.

PUBLICATIONS

“Have Your Debtor’s Mortgage Liens Been Released Under the National Mortgage Settlement?” Journal of the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees, Spring 2015 Volume 31.

“Civil and Criminal Enforcement Matters for Chapter 7 Trustees,”
Journal of the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees, Spring 2014 Volume 30.

Co-author, “What’s Left of Sovereign Immunity After Katz?” American Bankruptcy Institute Journal, May 1, 2006.

Co-author, “Diligent Searches: Finding Misfiled IRS Liens” The Secured Lender, November/December 2006.

PREVIOUS WORK

Mr. Bellinger taught U.S. History and English at Maurice J. McDonough High School in Charles County, Maryland. In addition, he was on the football coaching staff and coached track and field.