Bernice Lee focuses her practice on bankruptcy and insolvency-related matters, fiduciary representation, and commercial litigation. She has extensive experience helping clients navigate complex issues in reorganizations, liquidations, receiverships, appeals, and fraudulent and preference transfer claims. She regularly represents creditors, investors, corporate debtors, receivers and trustees, and has guided numerous companies through successful chapter 11 bankruptcies.

Chambers USA (2022) ranked Bernice as Up and Coming in Bankruptcy Litigation and Bankruptcy Restructuring in Florida, and says “she is able to come up with strategies and solutions to very complicated bankruptcy matters” and “her intelligence and knowledge of law is impressive.” Super Lawyers recognized Bernice as a top-rated bankruptcy lawyer in 2019-2022, and a Super Lawyers Rising Star in 2015-2018.

Since her appointment in 2021, Bernice has served on the Florida Bar’s Federal Court Practice Committee, and as co-chair of its Federal Judicial Roundtable Subcommittee.  In 2022, the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida appointed Bernice to serve as the non-judicial Co-Chair of its newly formed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, and she was an honoree at the Women’s History Month Luncheon hosted by the Bankruptcy Bar Association and other voluntary bar associations.

She is a fellow of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association’s 2019 Leadership Advancement Program, the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges’ 2016 NextGen Class, and the Florida Bar Wm. Reece Smith, Jr. Leadership Academy, Class IV.  Bernice is a past president of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of South Florida, and director of the Kozyak Minority Mentoring Foundation. She also served as a director of the South Palm Beach County Florida Association of Women Lawyers, and board member of the City of Fort Lauderdale’s Economic Development Advisory Board.

Bernice received her Juris Doctor from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, and B.A. from California State University Fullerton. During law school, she was a judicial intern for U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young for the District of Massachusetts. In 2008 to 2009, Bernice served as a law clerk for U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Paul G. Hyman for the Southern District of Florida. Prior to joining Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton, Bernice was a partner at a Boca Raton law firm.

PERSONAL STATEMENT

I am passionate about solving problems. I focus on understanding the client’s objectives and executing strategies to deliver desired results. Bankruptcy is a dynamic combination of litigation, negotiation, and consensus building. My dedication to community is reflected in my years of service on the board of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of South Florida.

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT

  • Co-Chair, 2022 Federal Judicial Roundtable, Florida Bar’s Federal Court Practice Committee (June 23, 2022)
  • Panelist, Effective and Persuasive Legal Writing for Bankruptcy Lawyers, 32nd Annual Bankruptcy Skills Workshop at the University of Miami School of Law (June 3, 2022)
  • Panelist, No Releases for You! Purdue Pharma, the ‘Texas Two-Step’ and Other Recent Developments in Bankruptcy and Mass Tort Liabilities, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association Webinar (March 9, 2022)
  • Moderator, Receiver and Trustee Appointments, American Inns of Court’s Bench & Bar Conference Miami (February 18, 2022)
  • Panelist, Virtual Conversation about Practicing Bankruptcy Law, Kozyak Minority Mentoring Foundation (April 6, 2022 and February 25, 2021)
  • Panelist, Notable Recent Supreme Court Bankruptcy Cases, Bankruptcy Bar Association of South Florida, Brown Bag Series Fort Lauderdale (June 27, 2018)
  • Co-Author, Pssst, Can you Keep a Secret? Unperfected “Secret” Liens as a Preference Defense Vol. XXXVI, American Bankruptcy Institute Journal No. 6 (June 2017)