Our Team

Biography

Andrea Dobin concentrates her practice in the areas of bankruptcy, debtor/creditor rights and commercial litigation.  Andrea is a former partner of the law firm of Sterns & Weinroth, where she served as chair of the firm’s Bankruptcy/Creditors’ Rights Practice Group.

Andrea represents parties that appear before the Bankruptcy Court, in particular, Chapter 7 Trustees, creditors in Chapter 13 proceedings, Creditors’ Committees in Chapter 11 proceedings, and litigants in adversary proceedings commenced in both Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 proceedings.

Appointed in 1999, Andrea is a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Panel Trustee, appointed by the United States Trustee, for the District of New Jersey, Vicinage of Trenton.  She also serves as the Chapter 12 Trustee for most of the family farmer bankruptcies filed in the District of New Jersey.  She also serves as a Chapter 11 Trustee and even confirmed a Chapter 11 Plan for a restaurant chain during the pandemic.

The advocacy Andrea has done has led to some well-known and often-cited published decisions, such as the following:

• In re Hill (Dobin v. Hill), 342 B.R. 183 (Bankr. D.N.J. 2006) – setting aside a non-collusive property settlement agreement as a fraudulent transfer.
• In re Jackus, 442 B.R. 365 (Bankr. D.N.J. 2011) – establishing the process for trustees to be able to sell annuities created by settlement of litigation.
• In re Mecka, 547 B.R. 139 (Bankr. D.N.J. 2016) – establishing the standards for allocating a tax refund between a debtor and non-debtor spouse.
• In re Benjamin, 580 B.R. 115 (Bankr. D.N.J. 2018) – limiting the right of a debtor to assert an exemption in an asset only disclosed after a case was closed then reopened.

Andrea is very active in the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees and was appointed to a three-year term on the Board of Directors effective October, 2022.  She also serves as the Editor in Chief of the American Bankruptcy Trustee Journal (published by the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees).

Andrea is a frequent speaker at regional and national educational conferences.  Since 2018 she has been on the panel providing the annual case law update for the New Jersey Bankruptcy Bench-Bar Conference.  She moderates the case law update at the annual convention of the NABT, as well.

Andrea has been active in a number of volunteer organizations.  She has served on the Board of Directors, then as Chair of the National House Corporation of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority.  For eight years, she served as a member, then Chair of the District VII (Mercer County) Ethics Committee.  For five years she served on the Board of Directors of the non-profit, One Simple Wish, that grants wishes for children in (and adults who have aged out of) foster care.

Andrea is admitted to practice in the State of New Jersey, the State of New York, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.