B.S., magna cum laude, Ithaca College
J.D., George Washington University, 1986
In the area of bankruptcy, Paul A. Levine brings broad experience to bear on behalf of institutional and private creditors and distressed debt buyers, presently serving as a Chapter 7 Panel Trustee representing secured creditors, unsecured creditors, administrative and priority creditors, debtors, and Chapters 7 and 11 Trustees in cases before the United States Bankruptcy Courts. He litigates in Bankruptcy Court, both federal and state trial courts, and New York and Federal appellate courts.
Mr. Levine has achieved favorable results for business clients in commercial disputes involving loan workouts, equipment leases, covenants not to compete in employment contracts, breach of contract disputes involving computer technology and franchises, cases involving liability for environmental contamination caused by leaking underground petroleum storage facilities, commercial landlord tenant disputes, and numerous matters on behalf of creditors and trustees in bankruptcy cases.
Mr. Levine’s successes include an award of a $16 million judgment in favor of a bank against a New York brokerage house; a jury verdict, affirmed on appeal, against a major oil company found liable for on-site contamination at a gasoline retailer’s property; the liquidation as Chapter 7 Trustee of a major customs broker and freight forwarder with operations across the United States; successful defenses of preferential transfer claims brought against creditors in Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases; the defense and favorable settlement of claims brought against banks relating to check fraud schemes whose bookkeepers embezzled funds; and the successful subordination of limited partner claims in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy estate where the Bankruptcy Court’s decision withstood appeals to the Second Circuit and a petition for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court.
Mr. Levine is admitted to practice in the State of New York; the District of Columbia; before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits; and before the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the New York State Bar Association, the District of Columbia Bar Association, and the American Bar Association. He was President of the Capital Region Bankruptcy Bar Association in 2003 and served as Chairperson of its 2000 Annual Conference in Cooperstown, New York. Mr. Levine also served as Co-Chair of the 2005 American Bar Association Judicial Division’s Inaugural Bench and Bar Bankruptcy Conference held in Washington, D.C. Mr. Levine was named among Upstate New York’s 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2011 “Super Lawyers.“ He is a member of the Local Rules Committee of the United States Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of New York. Mr. Levine has an “AV” Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating.