Melinda Middlebrooks Middlebrooks Shapiro, P.C. 973-218-6877
http://middlebrooksshapiro.com/ Bankruptcy Litigation Esq.
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Melinda Middlebrooks is the Managing Partner of the law firm of Middlebrooks Shapiro, P.C. in Springfield, New Jersey. Ms. Middlebrooks’ areas of practice include creditor rights and commercial, business, creditor and consumer bankruptcy law. She has twenty-eight years experience in bankruptcy practice having first served as a judicial law clerk for the late Chief Judge Vincent J. Commisa, U.S.B.C. (D.N.J.). While in law school at Seton Hall University School of Law (1984 graduate), Ms. Middlebrooks served on the Legislative Journal as Associate Editor. She was awarded the law school’s faculty award for “Most Outstanding Contribution to the Law School and the Community”. After completing her judicial clerkship, Ms. Middlebrooks became an associate with McCarter & English in Newark, New Jersey. Twenty years ago, in 1993, she opened her “bankruptcy boutique” law firm serving medium sized Chapter 11 cases, as well as, individual Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 matters. Ms. Middlebrooks is a Master with the Bankruptcy Inn of Court; a frequent lecturer; has served as a Panelist for the Annual Bankruptcy Bench Bar Conference (ICLE); authored numerous articles, including “What Every Practioner Should Know About Bankruptcy Before One is Filed” published by the prestigous New Jersey Lawyer – The Magazine of the New Jersey Bar Association. Ms. Middlebrooks is a litigator in both state and federal courts with numerous reported decisions. She is also an adjunct professor of bankruptcy law at Union County College. Ms. Middlebrooks is co-founder of PayMyTrustee (www.paymytrustee.com) which online service allows Chapter 13 debtors to make online Chapter 13 Plan payments and a named inventor for the pending patented process. Ms. Middlebrooks was named one of New Jersey’s 2013 Best 50 Women in Business. She came to law following a career as an educator elected three times to the Union Township Board of Education where she served as President. Ms. Middlebrooks is proud of her three children, one of whom, Joseph Middlebrooks Shapiro, Esq. is her law partner and her daughter, Jessica Middlebrooks Minecci who is soon to graduate from Seton Hall Law School. Her late husband, Richard Paul Shapiro, Esq., was also her law partner and s a graduate of Seton Hall Law School (1987). Education Seton Hall University School of Law, Newark, NJ, J.D. Columbia University, New York, NY, M.A. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, B.S. (with honors). Admitted State of Tennessee United States District Court, District of New Jersey United States District Court, Eastern District of New York United States District Court, Southern District of New York United States District Court, Western District of Tennessee United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit United States Claims Court United States Supreme Court