Attorney Laurel E. Bretta

Attorney Laurel E. Bretta Attorney Laurel E. Bretta received her Juris Doctorate from Boston College School of Law, Newton, Massachusetts, Graduating Cum Laude. She was admitted to the practice of law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Graduating Cum Laude. Upon graduation from law school, Ms. Bretta practiced as a tax attorney at the 1986 accounting firm of Coopers & Lybrand, from 1986 to 1988. Since establishing a private practice, Attorney Bretta represents clients in areas such as tax, bankruptcy, corporate and business law, and immigration matters.

Ms. Bretta has had several notable achievements in Bankruptcy Court, including but not limited to, three first-impression decisions in her clients’ favor. She litigated the first case in which a debtor’s chapter 13 bankruptcy was dismissed as a result of bad faith filing. She successfully litigated on behalf of a client who sought to modify his mortgage on a property which housed a portion of his principal residence in order to save a substantial amount of money, reducing his mortgage from $196,000 to $36,000, and saving the property from foreclosure. Attorney Bretta also argued a case which appeared in Lawyer’s Weekly, in which she won an appeal before the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel, modifying a judgment against a bank in which a mortgage was improperly recorded against the incorrect property. Recently, she won an appeal before the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel involving a $2.1 Million Judgment against her client.

Ms. Bretta has also litigated several waiver and cancellation of removal cases in the United States Immigration Court in Boston, Massachusetts. In each instance, she has been able to obtain a favorable result of a Waiver or a Cancellation of Removal for her client, and, eventually, preserve their resident status in the United States.

Attorney Bretta is also knowledgeable in the defense of “responsible person” penalties before the Internal Revenue Service, as well as the Department of Revenue, and deals with both taxing authorities, as part of bankruptcy work, and as income tax advocacy services outside of the bankruptcy forum.

Attorney Bretta is a member of the Massachusetts Bar, and is also authorized to practice before the United States Tax Court, the United States Bankruptcy Appellate Panel, the United States Court of Appeals, and the United States First Circuit District Court. She is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association, and frequently provides pro bono services through various agencies in the Boston area.