Joseph H. Huston, Jr.

Joe focuses on corporate bankruptcies, restructurings and related corporate and commercial matters primarily in Wilmington, where he is resident and also has appeared in bankruptcy cases throughout the U.S. He has represented numerous official committees of unsecured creditors and debtors, as well as institutional and other secured lenders in restructuring and enforcing secured obligations in out-of-court engagements and in plenary proceedings. He has worked with virtually every type of constituency in the reorganization and liquidation processes, particularly with official committees of unsecured creditors and ad hoc committees of interested parties, from money-center lenders and bondholders to individual deferred compensation and retirement plan claimants.

Prior to joining Stevens & Lee, Joe served as a Director of Business Investigation Services at Coopers & Lybrand, Philadelphia, as general counsel and Director of Corporation Administration of Philadelphia Suburban Corporation (now Aqua America, Inc.) (NYSE) and as a commercial and bankruptcy litigator at a major international law firm’s Philadelphia office.

In addition to his bankruptcy and restructuring practice, given his training and experience as a commercial litigator with jury trial experience, Joe has represented a wide variety of parties in nearly all forms of traditional and alternative dispute resolution in state and federal trial courts, in bankruptcy courts and in private proceedings. He has completed the Delaware courts’ intensive civil mediation training program and is certified to conduct mediations in its civil courts. He also has been appointed to the Delaware Bankruptcy Court’s Panel of Mediators.

He has also appeared as bankruptcy or commercial litigation counsel in cases in Delaware and elsewhere for Morningstar, Inc., UTC/Pratt & Whitney Corp, Johnson & Johnson and affiliates, Lyondell Chemical Co./Basel, Enbridge, Inc., San Bernardino (CA) County, Alabama Power Company, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Alabama, The Ames Companies, Inc. (formerly Ames True Temper), Lebanon Seaboard Corp., Keeneland Association, Inc., Fasig-Tipton, Inc., International Paper Co., Realty Income Corporation, Ball Horticulture and Pence-Friedel Real Estate Developers, serving as counsel to one or more of them in the bankruptcies of Samson Resources Co.,Optim Energy LLC, Commerce Corporation, Revstone LLC, Raser Technologies, Big Ten Tires, Buffets Holdings, Inc., VICORP, Inc., GST Telecom, eSpire Communications, Exodus Communications, Montgomery Ward, ACT Manufacturing, Dairy Mart, Avado Foods/Don Pablo’s, Footstar, Kmart, Discovery Zone, The Fleming Companies, Pathnet Communications, Bob’s Stores, DB Stores, U.S. Internetworking, DBR/Two Days’ and MCI/WorldCom.

In sum, over a career spanning 50 years, he has been involved in nearly every major Delaware bankruptcy case for virtually every type of participant in a complex case other than the Office of the U.S. Trustee or the U.S. itself.

Affiliations

• Eastern District of Pennsylvania Bankruptcy Conference
• American Bankruptcy Institute
• American Bar Association
  • Business Bankruptcies Subcommittee
  • International Insolvencies Subcommittee
• Delaware State Bar Association
  • Bankruptcy Section
• Pennsylvania Bar Association
• Philadelphia Bar Association
• Chester County Bar Association
• National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Greater Delaware Valley, Board of Trustees and Executive Committee, 1977-2005; Chapter President, 1982-84; Vice President, 1981-82, 1986; Hope Award (exceptional service by a volunteer)
• The Brandywine Conservancy
• Longwood Gardens, Longwood Innovators
• Stroud Water Research Center
• Buck & Doe Conservation Trust (open space conservation), Board of Trustees, 2005-2014; Vice President , 2009-2014
• West Marlborough Township (Chester County, PA) Zoning Hearing Board
• Delaware Bankruptcy Inn of Court-Founding, Mentor, 2020-present

Recognition

• Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America, Wilmington, DE, Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law, 2015-Present
• Named as a Super Lawyer, Delaware, 2016-Present
• Rated AV^®Preeminent™ by Martindale-Hubbell