Stephen Vincent Falanga

Stephen V. Falanga has more than two decades of experience representing financial institutions, corporations, insurance companies, real estate developers, landlords and individuals in the financial services and risk management area including significant work in all aspects of insolvency law.

A versatile practitioner, Stephen handles both transactional and litigation matters in the commercial law field. Transactional matters include asset sales and dispositions, secured transactions, loan and mortgage financings, and other credit-related transactions. In the litigation area, Stephen represents debtors and creditors in bankruptcy proceedings and in complex commercial and bankruptcy litigation in the Federal Courts of New York, New Jersey, and Delaware.

Stephen has served as a chapter 11 trustee in bankruptcy cases, as an expert witness on judgment enforcement and commercial law matters, and as an arbitrator for commercial law cases.

Prior to beginning his legal career, Stephen served a one-year clerkship with the Honorable William F. Tuohey, a United States Bankruptcy Judge in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.

He has been awarded the Award for Exemplary Service (2013) by the American Bankruptcy Institute, where he served as Chair of the Secured Credit Committee, and was named to NJBIZ magazine’s “40 under 40” in 2006. He is currently a Trustee for the ARC of Essex County, which serves the needs of individuals with intellectual disabilities, and in 2001 received the Essex County Bar Association Special Merit Award for his volunteer work.

He is a frequent author and lecturer on all aspects of commercial law and bankruptcy.


Alpha Sigma Nu, National Jesuit Honor Society. Boston College Law School Recipient of the Cornelius J. Monyihan Commencement Award for Scholarship and Co-curricular Leadership, 1992. Staff Writer, 1990-1991 and Editor-in-Chief, 1991-1992, Uniform Commercial Code Reporter-Digest. Author: "Lender's Insider Status Does Not Reclassify Debt," New Jersey Law Journal, Vol. CLXXXIII, No. 10, Index 795, March 6, 2006; "No, New Jersey, There is No Creditor Fraud," New Jersey Law Journal, Vol. CLXXXI, No. 11, Index 1012, September 12, 2005; "CoreStates Extends Claim Preclusion to Competing Creditors," New Jersey Law Journal, November 1, 1999. Co-Author: with Cromie, Falanga and Jacobus, "Letters of Credit Offer Landlords Protection Against Tenant Bankruptcies," Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, Vol. 10, No. 4, April, 2002. Law Clerk to the Honorable William F. Tuohey, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of New Jersey, 1992-1993. Master, Bankruptcy Inn of Court. Saint Peter's College Alumni Board Member, 1997-2002, Alumni President, 2000-2001 and Member, Saint Peter's College Board of Regents, 2002-.