Brian K. Tester

Biography

He concentrates his practice in bankruptcy, debt restructuring and business reorganizations.

Mr. Tester served as a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Puerto Rico from 2006-2020 and on the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the First Circuit from 2007-2020.

Between 2016 and 2018 he helped draft the insolvency law for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which was signed by King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. Since finishing that task, he has been consulted as an expert for revising the insolvency laws of Morocco, Singapore, Bahrain, UAE and Tunisia.

After completing his 14-year term as a bankruptcy judge in 2020, he joined Putnam Bridge Funding LLC as general counsel where he worked on the sale of the Puerto del Rey marina in Fajardo, and the opening of the La Casa senior residential living community in Santurce. Afterward he established his own law firm.

Prior to being appointed to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, he worked in other stateside and Puerto Rico law firms, including at a leading firm in San Juan, where he headed the bankruptcy and business reorganization division.  He also was an attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice in the Office of the U.S. Trustee. While in private practice, he was lead counsel in several published decisions.

He has been a speaker for the American Bankruptcy Institute, the Association of Bankruptcy Judicial Assistants, the Federal Judicial Center, the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, the Colegio de Abogados de Puerto Rico, the Bankruptcy Bar Association for the Southern District of Florida, the Colegio de CPAs and the National Business Institute. He also is a professor on the faculty for the School of Law at the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico.

In his free time, he uses his Speech, Debate & Drama bachelor’s degree by participating in movies and television. He currently has 35 acting credits (see IMDb.com) and was the regional representative for the SAG/AFTRA union.

Practices