Bio

Joanne Semeister focuses her practice on commercial real estate, land use and zoning, bankruptcy, workouts and corporate restructuring, as well as financing and development matters for colleges, universities and nonprofit organizations. In her real estate practice, Joanne counsels clients on a variety of real estate matters and secured lending transactions. Her real estate representations include structuring, negotiating and documenting the acquisition, disposition, financing and leasing of commercial and industrial sites. Joanne's experience also includes work in the areas of eminent domain, land use, real estate tax exemption matters, real estate tax assessment appeals and all aspects of real estate litigation for a wide array of clients such as banks, major lending institutions, real estate developers, hospitals, colleges, universities, cooperative and condominium associations and nonprofit organizations. Joanne's bankruptcy experience includes the representation of both creditors and debtors in all matters of bankruptcy practice. In that capacity, she is involved with the strategy, planning and negotiation of agreements related to all aspects of Chapter 11 cases. In addition, she counsels clients on the potential effects of bankruptcy and insolvency in structuring transactions. Joanne has written numerous articles on real estate, lender liability, commercial loan workouts and bankruptcy topics, as well as consumer law such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Additionally, she has lectured on real estate and commercial bankruptcy topics for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute and the Philadelphia Patent Law Association, and has been a presenter at a higher education seminar hosted by Montgomery McCracken on regulatory matters affecting colleges and universities. Joanne was an honors scholar and graduated cum laude with a B.S. degree from Temple University. She earned an M.A. degree from Villanova University and a J.D. degree from Villanova University School of Law where she received the Nathan Burkan Memorial Award for a paper submitted on the subject of copyright law.