Experience
Courtney A. Schael has practiced exclusively in the area of business bankruptcy law since graduating from Seton Hall Law School magna cum laude in 1993. After ranking sixth in her law school graduating class, she served as law clerk to the Honorable Stephen A. Stripp, former United States Bankruptcy Judge, District of New Jersey. Upon completing her clerkship in 1994, Ms. Schael joined the prominent New Jersey law firm of Lowenstein Sandler as a bankruptcy associate.
During her five years as a bankruptcy attorney with Lowenstein Sandler, she represented business debtors, including, construction companies, manufacturers, real estate development entities, a nursing home, and restaurants. Ms. Schael also represented secured creditors, including, banks, financial institutions, a brokerage firm, inventory suppliers, a rental car franchisor and real estate limited partnerships. She represented unsecured creditor interests both as committee counsel and counsel for individual Unsecured Creditors & Committees, including an airline, individuals, hospitals, labor unions, wholesalers, suppliers, and landlords. Through these and other representations, Ms. Schael gained extensive experience and training in all aspects of Chapter 11 cases and business bankruptcy law. Ms. Schael also honed her litigation skills representing plaintiffs and defendants in avoidance actions and other bankruptcy litigation.
Ms. Schael continued her business bankruptcy legal career in New York City at the preeminent national law firm of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. At Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, she worked as a bankruptcy attorney on various Chapter 11 bankruptcy matters, including preparing the bankruptcy filing of FINOVA, at the time, one of the largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings in history.
Ms. Schael returned to her home state of New Jersey in 2003 to join the bankruptcy department of another prominent New Jersey law firm, Riker, Danzig, Scherer, Hyland & Perretti, LLP, in Morristown, New Jersey. During her five years as a bankruptcy lawyer with Riker Danzig, Ms. Schael represented business debtors in Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings, secured creditors, equipment lessors, indenture trustees, principals of debtors, individual and business defendants in avoidance actions and other bankruptcy litigation, principals and shareholders of debtors and a trustee of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy liquidating trust.
Ms. Schael is particularly adept at developing new and creative solutions and strategies for clients and applying her extensive experience and knowledge of bankruptcy law to complex and novel legal issues.
Ms. Schael formed Ashford Schael in 2009 as a cost effective alternative to large law firms for business bankruptcy representation. Ms. Schael continues to utilize her extensive Chapter 11 bankruptcy and business bankruptcy law experience in complex matters to provide the highest quality business bankruptcy representation.
Education
- J.D., magna cum laude, Seton Hall University School of Law, J.D. 1993
- Editorial Board, Seton Hall Law Constitutional Law Journal
- Merit Scholarships: NJ Bar Association (1992), Hudson County Bar Association (1992), Wallace Vail Scholarship (1991), Sonia Morgan Scholarship (1990)
- B.A., Finance, Pennsylvania State University, 1986
Admissions
- State of New Jersey, 1993
- State of New York, 1993
- District of New Jersey
- Southern District of New York
- Eastern District of New York
Memberships
- New Jersey Bar Association
- American Bankruptcy Institute
- International Women's Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation
- Union County Bar Association
- New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners
To request a consultation, please call Ashford Schael now at 908-232-5566 to speak to a bankruptcy attorney or contact us by email.