Joseph J. Burton Jr.

Joseph J. Burton, Jr. is a partner with the firm of Mozley, Finlayson & Loggins, LLP. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Virginia in 1970 where he was a Dupont Scholar. After serving as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy in Vietnam and South East Asia from 1970-1971, Mr. Burton attended Emory Law School, graduating in 1975 where was elected to the law review as a Board Member of the Emory Law Journal.

Mr. Burton began his legal career at Swift, Currie, McGhee & Heirs (“Swift Currie”) and he later became a partner there in 1981. His practice specialty was business litigation with a practice concentration in complex business and securities litigation and Chapter 11 business reorganizations and workouts in both state and federal courts.

Mr. Burton left “Swift Currie” in 1989 and founded his own firm Burton & Anderson, LLP, with Paul Anderson, with whom he practiced from 1989 until 1999, specializing in complex business litigation and bankruptcy. Later Rosemary Armstrong joined Burton & Anderson and the firm became Burton, Anderson and Armstrong. In 2003, he and Rosemary Armstrong founded Burton & Armstrong, LLP which operated as a small trial practice firm specializing in complex business litigation, securities and construction litigation, also representing fiduciaries and creditors in state and federal courts and in Chapter 11 reorganizations.

Prior to joining Mozley, Finlayson & Loggins, LLP, Mr. Burton served as a Chapter 7 trustee in the Northern District of Georgia from 1980-1982 and as trustee of one of the largest Chapter 11 and 7 cases in Alabama, Selma Apparel Corporation, in 1988-1992, a contractor involved in the “Pentagon Procurement Fraud” scandals. His practice has taken him all over the country in federal courts, but he focuses his practice in the Southeast. He has represented trustees, secured creditors, individuals, limited partners and CEO’s in medium-sized public and non-public companies whose businesses are experiencing financial problems or who have filed Chapter 11.

He has been involved in a number of reported and major cases, including:

• • Danee Brokaw Munford and Shearson Lehman Bros., Inc. v. Munford, Inc., 97 F3d 449 (11th Cir 1996) (leveraged buyout/fraudulent conveyance).
  • Abrams & Wofsy et al v. Renaissance Investment Corporation, 1991 WL 319034, 319050 (ND Ga), 820 F Supp 1519 (ND Ga 1991)(“the Renaissance Case”) (securities fraud/10(b)(5).
  • Trustee of Chapter 7 Debtor, Selma Apparel Corporation (In re Selma Apparel Corporation) filed in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Alabama (1988-1992) (fraud/liquidation of Pentagon clothing supplier).
  • Holmes v. Jack Grubman and Solomon Smith Barney, Inc., 568 F3d 329 (2nd Cir. 2009) (securities fraud/”holder” claims) and later in the Georgia Supreme Court, 286 Ga. 636, 691 S.E.2d 196 (Ga 2010) (validating Georgia “holder” claims).
  • Mr. Burton is co-author of the Treatise “Guide to Effective Bankruptcy Litigation” published by Shepards/McGraw Hill (1988), and author of “Examination of the Debtor under Rule 2004 is the Key to Successful Litigation”, Bankruptcy Law Review (1989).
  • Most recently Mr. Burton has been counsel for the former CEO, Daniel J. Miles, of a large regional apartment developer, Miles Properties, Inc., in a series of fourteen (14) affiliated Chapter 11 cases currently pending in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia. In re Miles Properties, Inc. et al, case number 10-60797.
  • He has also presently acting as counsel for a large regional automobile parts manufacturer In Re MP-Tech America, LLC, (a “Tier 2” Kia supplier) and manufacturer of automobile parts for Kia and Hyundai, as a Chapter 11 debtor in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Alabama, Case number 11-30895.

He is a member of the Atlanta Bar Association, State Bar of Georgia and former member of the Lawyers Club of Atlanta, and former board member of the Younger Lawyers Section of the State Bar of Georgia. He is a certified FIFA soccer referee, and is a deacon in St. Luke’s Presbyterian Church.