Stephen E. Leach

Leach Photo

Partner



Practice Areas

Experience

Stephen Leach leads the Bankruptcy and Creditors' Rights Practice. For nearly 30 years, Mr. Leach has advised and represented an array of creditors, debtors, trustees, and committees in bankruptcy reorganizations and liquidations, out-of-court workouts, and out-of-court business dissolutions. Mr. Leach regularly appears before the bankruptcy and other federal and state courts of Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. Much of his practice involves advising businesses and their creditors on strategies and options available under the federal Bankruptcy Code and state creditors' rights laws.

In addition to his law practice, since 1988 Mr. Leach has been an adjunct professor of bankruptcy law at American University's Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C. Mr. Leach also frequently addresses legal and business organizations on bankruptcy and creditors' rights topics.

Mr. Leach is a former Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee and a past chair of the District of Columbia Bar's Business Bankruptcy Committee. Mr. Leach serves on the panel of mediators of the United State Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia, and has acted as both a court-appointed and private mediator in numerous bankruptcy cases in the Washington, D.C. area.

Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Leach was a Trial Attorney with the United States Department of Justice and a Trade Regulation Attorney with the Federal Trade Commission.

Mr. Leach is a 2006 recipient of the Harry L. Carrico Pro Bono Award from Legal Services of Northern Virginia.

Education

  • JD, Stanford University Law School (1976)
  • BA, Yale College, magna cum laude (1972)

Certification

  • Certified in Business Bankruptcy by the American Board of Certification of the American Bankruptcy Institute (1993)

Bar Admissions

  • Virginia
  • Maryland
  • District of Columbia
  • California (inactive)

Activities

  • American Bankruptcy Institute
  • Walter Chandler Bankruptcy Inn of Court – Washington, D.C.
  • Maryland Bankruptcy Bar Association
  • Virginia Bankruptcy Bar Association