Law Office of Gregory Messer: The Brooklyn Attorney Across the Street From the Bankruptcy Court Since 1980

Attorney Advertising. This profile is independent editorial content produced by Awesome Attorneys and is not a paid placement. Nothing in this article constitutes legal advice or creates an attorney-client relationship. See our Methodology and Publisher Disclosure below.

At a Glance

Founded by	Gregory Messer, who opened his Brooklyn practice in 1980 after starting his career as a Legal Aid attorney in Albany (per his published biographies)
Focus	Consumer and business bankruptcy under Chapters 7, 11, and 13, plus wage garnishment, foreclosure, and loan modification matters (per the firm)
Office	Brooklyn Heights, directly across the street from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York, near the Borough Hall and Court Street stations (per the firm)
Signature results	No published itemized outcomes table; the firm’s stated credential base is Messer’s 45+ years in bankruptcy practice and four decades of trustee-panel service (per the firm)
Distinctive edge	Board Certified in Consumer Bankruptcy Law by the American Board of Certification since 1995, and a Chapter 7 Trustee Panel member for both the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York since 1980
Fee model	Free initial consultations by appointment, per the firm; the firm identifies itself as a debt relief agency in its own disclosures
Known for	Direct, personal handling of consumer bankruptcy cases by Messer himself, in an appointment-only practice (per the firm)

Origin and Background

Gregory Messer’s office sits directly across the street from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Brooklyn — a detail the firm states plainly on its own site, and one that captures how close to the machinery of bankruptcy practice he has worked for four and a half decades. Messer graduated from Albany Law School in 1977, began his career as a Legal Aid attorney in Albany, and opened his Brooklyn practice in 1980, the same year he was appointed to the standing panel of Chapter 7 Trustees for the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts for both the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, an appointment he has held ever since, per his published biographies. In the decades since, he has served not only as a debtors’ attorney but as a Chapter 7 Trustee, Chapter 11 Trustee, post-confirmation trustee, court-appointed mediator, and examiner in cases across a range of industries.

What Makes This Firm Structurally Different

Most consumer bankruptcy practices sit on one side of the process; Messer has spent his career on several sides of it at once. As a standing panel trustee since 1980, he has administered the same kind of Chapter 7 estates that his debtor clients enter — meaning the attorney preparing a client’s filing has also spent forty-plus years reviewing filings from the trustee’s chair. The firm is also structured deliberately small: it is appointment-only, and the firm states that from first contact, clients work directly with Messer himself rather than being routed through staff.

Practice Areas

• Chapter 7 consumer and business bankruptcy
• Chapter 13 repayment-plan bankruptcy
• Chapter 11 reorganization
• Wage garnishment relief
• Mortgage foreclosure, short sale, and loan modification matters
• Debt consolidation counseling

Track Record

Awesome Attorneys did not identify a published, itemized table of case outcomes on the firm’s site, which is typical for consumer bankruptcy practices, where the measure of success is a completed discharge rather than a marketed dollar figure. The firm’s stated record rests instead on longevity and institutional roles: more than 45 years in bankruptcy practice, four decades of continuous trustee-panel service, and appointments as Chapter 11 trustee, plan administrator, and bankruptcy-court mediator, per Messer’s published biographies. Past results in any matter do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future matter.

Client Voice

Independently posted, named-and-dated Avvo reviews describe working directly with Messer through deposition and discharge; a June 2022 reviewer identified as Stephanie recounted that when a creditor issue resurfaced years after her 2015 discharge, Messer “calmly took care of it for me.” The firm holds an Avvo Client’s Choice designation, which that platform states requires multiple 4-plus-star client reviews in a year, and a Martindale-Hubbell Platinum Client Champion recognition based on the volume and quality of reviews submitted through that service.

Beyond the Courtroom

Messer serves as treasurer of the Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project, an organization providing legal help to low-income Brooklyn residents, and received that association’s Volunteer Lawyers Pro Bono Award in 1999, the Frieda S. Nisnewitz Award for service to the Brooklyn community in 2003, and the Leticia Award in 2022, per his firm biography. He is a frequent lecturer on bankruptcy topics for the Practising Law Institute, the New York City Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, and the Brooklyn Bar Association.

Recognition

Messer has been Board Certified in Consumer Bankruptcy Law by the American Board of Certification since 1995 — a genuine specialty certification earned through examination and peer review, and the basis on which this publication describes him as a certified consumer bankruptcy specialist, individually attributed to that certifying body. He holds Martindale-Hubbell’s AV Preeminent peer-review rating, appears in Super Lawyers and the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers, and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, per his published biographies. These peer-reviewed credentials are distinct from purchased marketing placements, and none of the recognitions cited here are pay-to-play awards.

New York Legal Backdrop

Bankruptcy is federal law: Chapter 7 liquidation, Chapter 13 repayment plans, and Chapter 11 reorganization all proceed under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, and filing triggers the automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. § 362, which generally halts most collection activity, wage garnishments, and foreclosure sales while the case is pending. New York debtors choose between New York’s state exemption scheme (drawn from CPLR § 5205 and Debtor and Creditor Law §§ 282–283) and the federal exemptions, a choice New York law has permitted since 2011 amendments, with New York’s homestead exemption set at its highest tier for the counties in and around New York City. None of this is legal advice; whether and how to file, and which exemption scheme to elect, should be evaluated by a licensed attorney based on the actual facts involved.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Gregory Messer’s clearest differentiator is institutional depth on both sides of the bankruptcy process: a certified consumer bankruptcy practitioner who has simultaneously served on the Chapter 7 trustee panels of both New York federal districts since 1980, working from an office across the street from the courthouse where his cases are heard. The honest trade-off is scale: a deliberately small, appointment-only practice built around one attorney cannot process the volume of a multi-office filing operation, publishes no outcomes record, and clients for whom speed of intake matters more than direct attorney contact may prefer a larger shop. He also represents creditors and serves as a trustee in other matters, a dual role disclosed here directly. For an individual or small business owner in Brooklyn or the wider city who wants their bankruptcy handled personally by a certified, trustee-experienced attorney rather than a case manager, this practice is a reasonable one to have on a shortlist.

Methodology and Sourcing

This profile was researched from the Law Office of Gregory Messer’s own website, Messer’s attorney biographies as published on Martindale-Hubbell, Super Lawyers, Avvo, and the Cornell LII lawyer directory, and independently posted Avvo client reviews, cross-referenced for consistency on his certification, trustee-panel service, and bar admissions.

Publisher Disclosure and Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by the Law Office of Gregory Messer prior to publication. Awesome Attorneys does not endorse, recommend, or warrant any profiled firm, and inclusion in this directory is not a paid placement. “Awesome Attorneys” is a brand name only and does not constitute a rating or ranking claim. Facts stated are current only as of this profile’s research date.

Related legal guides

• What Debt Is Not Dischargeable in Bankruptcy: Student Loans, Support, and Taxes
• Bankruptcy Credit Counseling Requirement: The Two Courses Arizona Filers Must Complete
• Wage Garnishment in Arizona: How Bankruptcy Stops It (and What Doesn’t)
• Reaffirmation Agreement Chapter 7: What Signing One Actually Means
• Chapter 13 Repayment Plan Arizona: How the Payment Gets Calculated
• Subchapter V Bankruptcy Arizona: How Small Businesses Reorganize

Browse all guides →