Kenneth Leonetti

Practice Areas

Kenneth Leonetti is a litigator and restructuring lawyer who focuses on bankruptcy and corporate reorganization; complex financial litigation; and trade secret, life sciences, licensing, and tech-related disputes in federal and state courts and arbitrations throughout the United States. He has been regularly recognized in Chambers USA, Best Lawyers in America and Massachusetts Super Lawyers for his expertise in bankruptcy and bankruptcy litigation.

Ken’s bankruptcy practice spans all phases of corporate restructuring and bankruptcy-related litigation. He has represented debtors, creditors’ committees, secured creditors and third parties in restructurings, workouts, liquidations and adversary proceedings, and works with clients both within and outside of formal bankruptcy proceedings. His public cases are primarily in the life sciences, healthcare, energy, and high technology industries, and include representing the debtors in Burgess BioPower, Church Street Health Management, Radianse, Organogenesis and Charles River Hospital; creditors’ committees in Malden Mills Industries, East Boston Neighborhood Health Center, Palm Harbor One Development, New Seabury Properties and RJ Development; the Examiner in InfoMotion Sports, strategic investors and/or major creditors in Liberty Healthcare, K-V Pharmaceuticals, GT Advanced Technologies, Scott Cable and Benchmark Electronics. Ken also counsels clients and private investors in distressed situations, and advises high tech, pharmaceutical and biotech clients on bankruptcy-related issues in intellectual property licenses and in acquiring technology-related assets from insolvent entities.

Ken’s litigation experience includes over 50 trials and arbitrations, and focuses on litigating complex financial matters, mergers and acquisition-related disputes, software implementation projects, disputes involving strategic alliances and licensing transactions, claims for trade secret misappropriation, and other high stakes litigation. His clients include public and private companies in the life sciences, high tech, software development, financial services, and manufacturing industries, as well as private equity, hedge funds, venture capital firms and other investment funds. Ken also has defended numerous public entities in land use and land valuation disputes, including the Massachusetts Port Authority, Mystic Valley Development Commission, City of Malden, Worcester Redevelopment Authority, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the City of Chelsea. He also has an active public and pro bono practice in his areas of emphasis, including representation of indigent individuals, victims of mortgage fraud and public interest organizations in bankruptcy-related matters.

From 2016-22, Ken was the firm’s Co-Managing Partner and was a member of the firm's Executive Committee for a decade. He is a member of the Board of Directors of The Partnership, a Boston-based organization that works with corporations and other enterprises to attract, develop, and retain talented multicultural professionals at all levels of leadership, and on that organization’s Executive Committee. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Lawyers for Civil Rights, a legal advocacy organization that fights discrimination and fosters equity through creative and courageous litigation, education, and economic empowerment.

Ken served as a Special Assistant District Attorney for Norfolk County, Massachusetts in 1999 and was the lead prosecutor in more than two dozen trials. Before joining Foley Hoag he was law clerk to the Honorable Charles P. Sifton, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. From 1988 to 1990, Ken was a management consultant with Strategic Planning Associates (now Mercer Management Consulting) in Washington, D.C., advising corporations on strategic, organizational and restructuring issues and specializing in the health care and telecommunications industries.

Education: Columbia Law School, JD; Dartmouth College, AB