Lawyer Jeffrey Fraser receives Blackshear Fellowship

Jamaican-born lawyer Jeffrey Fraser has been recognised as a Blackshear Fellow by the (United States) National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (NCBJ), and was honoured in October at this year's NCBJ Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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The Blackshear Fellowship is a minority fellowship programme awarded by the NCBJ and is named after Hon Cornelius Blackshear — an esteemed, retired African American Bankruptcy Judge from the Southern District of New York.

Each year, the NCBJ chooses a handful of minority lawyers to attend its annual conference. The fellowship is highly selective, awarded only to between one and five up-and-coming minority bankruptcy lawyers in the entire United States. The selected fellows are provided with a stipend to attend the NCBJ Conference; and honoured and presented with the award at a Fellowship Breakfast. Blackshear Fellows are attorneys who deserve special recognition for their professional accomplishments and who show the potential to distinguish themselves in future years in the area of Bankruptcy Law.

Fraser was recognised for the fellowship because of his work at Albertelli Law (ALAW) — a law firm centralised in South Florida with offices in a number of other states. Jeffrey is the managing Bankruptcy Attorney at ALAW and serves as the lead bankruptcy attorney for all contested matters in the state of Florida. He also oversees the entire bankruptcy legal department for ALAW outside the state of Florida.

In his seven years of practice, Fraser has developed a collaborative relationship with members of the local bankruptcy bar and a healthy respect from the judges and trustees he practises in front of.

Fraser's commitment to bankruptcy extends outside the courtroom, as he has been a panelist on numerous Continuing Legal Education seminars for the Southern District of Florida Bankruptcy Bar Association; has sat on local rule committees to develop mortgage modification programmes; and has assisted in the development and approval of the Southern District of Florida Model Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Plan.

The son of  Florida-based medical doctor Wayne Fraser, Jeffrey is also the past president of the Jamaican-American Bar Association, for which he assisted in creating mentorship relationships with local law students; organised bankruptcy and foreclosure workshops, and served as a panellist in Kingston, Jamaican to provide the American bankruptcy perspective in comparison to the Jamaican Insolvency Act.

Source: Jamaica Observer

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