Bernice Lee is a Partner at Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton, and focuses her practice on bankruptcy and receiverships. Her significant experience is reflected in Chambers USA, which ranks Bernice in both Bankruptcy Litigation and Bankruptcy Restructuring, and describes her as “an excellent lawyer able to handle and manage effectively various complicated issues.”

Bernice serves as the receiver over MJ Capital Funding, LLC and related companies in an action brought by the SEC in the Southern District of Florida. The companies were used for a Ponzi scheme that raised more than $200 million. Under Bernice’s management, the estate and related settlement fund for an investor class action recovered over $50 million, and the estate reduced the $238 million asserted by over 13,000 claims by $77 million and accounted for over $38 million in payments received by investors. Bernice recently obtained court approval to issue initial pro rata distributions under a rising tide methodology to over 6,000 investors.

In 2024, Bernice was appointed as a receiver over Location Ventures, LLC and 21 related companies in an action brought by the SEC in the Southern District of Florida. The estate involved multiple distressed real estate developments alleged to have been used to raise $93 million from investors through material misrepresentations. Bernice has administered over $50 million in real estate, including a $17.5 million free and clear sale of a luxury residence in Miami’s Coconut Grove neighborhood, and a $17.5 million free and clear sale of commercial real estate in the City of Miami Beach’s South Beach neighborhood.

Bernice serves as Chair of the Florida Bar’s Federal Court Practice Committee (2025-26, Vice Chair 2023-25, Education Subcommittee Co-Chair 2022-23, and Judicial Roundtable Subcommittee Co-Chair 2021-22), and Co-Chair of the Bankruptcy and Restructuring Committee of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (2024-2030). Bernice has also served as the President of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of South Florida (2017-18).

Bernice’s dedication to the community has been recognized by the Miami-Dade Bar Association as a 2024 Circle of Excellence Bankruptcy Award recipient, the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of South Florida as the 2024 President’s Award recipient, the Daily Business Review as a 2023 Unsung Hero awardee for her work on the MJ Capital Funding receivership, and the Florida Trend as one of the 2023 Notable Women Leaders in Law.

Bernice received her Juris Doctor from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, and Bachelor of Arts in Communications and minor in Business Administration from California State University Fullerton. In 2008 to 2009, Bernice was a law clerk for U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Paul G. Hyman for the Southern District of Florida.

SELECTED SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

  • Moderator, Pathways to Magistrate and Bankruptcy Judgeships, Florida Bar’s Federal Court Practice Committee (June 18, 2025)
  • Panelist, Equality and Empowerment Summit, Complex Litigation and Receiverships Panel, Federal Bar Association South Florida Chapter (April 2, 2024)
  • Moderator, Federal Court Settlement Conferences, Florida Bar’s Federal Court Practice Committee (May 19, 2023)
  • 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 (March 9, 2022)
  • Moderator, Receiver and Trustee Appointments, American Inns of Court’s Bench & Bar Conference Miami (February 18, 2022)