Accounting isn't a forte normally associated with attorneys, who tend to prefer the intricacies of a well-crafted legal brief or a compelling courtroom argument.

Joe Pack is different. He graduated first in his class at the University of Florida while earning a dual bachelor's and master's degree in accounting and has been working in the realm since 14.

"As opposed to what you see all the time, 'Well, I can't read a balance sheet. I am a lawyer.' Not for me," Pack said. "You want to throw a 200-page balance sheet at me for a Fortune 50 company that has international operations and has a consolidated balance sheet across subsidiaries and companies and has transactions among countries and in between countries with tax treaties? I can handle it. I can do it. Give it to me. You'll never catch me saying, 'That involves numbers. I can't handle it, I am a lawyer.' "

Pack, who recently launched Pack Law in Miami after over a decade in Big Law, is a bankruptcy practitioner who is cautious about being labeled only that.

Bankruptcy law is complex from the start, requiring him to learn the ins and outs of a business on an in-depth level before helping with restructuring or avoiding court proceedings entirely.

" Bankruptcy law is not bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is a process as much as it is a specific area of law," he said.

Pack also is a certified public accountant and a real estate broker. And at 36, he boasts 22 years of experience.

At 14, Pack started working for Fort Lauderdale forensic accountant and bankruptcy trustee Soneet Kapila. That meant spending his summer, winter and spring breaks in high school and his first two years of college helping Kapila hunt for fraudulent transactions in everything from big white-collar crimes to small embezzlements.

"The devil is in the details. It's not like you could just look at a bank account and see money going out of the bank account and say, 'Oh, that's the expenditure.' You've got to really look at where was the money going. Look at the other bank account," Pack said.

As a UF undergrad, Pack wanted to financially support himself and took a teaching job with a company offering crash courses condensing a semester into a six-hour, pre-exam lecture. Pack summarized the crash courses for core classes taken by accounting, business and finance majors.

At 21 and 22, he was faced with the daunting task of teaching about 500 peers a mere year or two younger than him. This meant keeping their attention for hours at a time and earning their trust by becoming an expert on the courses.

"You absolutely learn first hand how to conduct yourself to keep someone entertained for long periods of time," Pack said. "And that has been a valuable experience in the boardroom and in front of high-level executives and management, so you know how to cut out the noise and really get to the point and drive home what it is they need to know and cut out what it is they don't."

UF also hired him to teach a technical writing course focusing on the accuracy and level of detail needed to correctly draft contracts and legal documents.

Once he started law school at UF, bankruptcy law clicked given his experience working for Kapila and as a teacher.

"Bankruptcy law is known as something that finds you. You don't find it. And it takes a certain type of person to love bankruptcy law," Pack said. "That type of person is a person that likes to solve complicated problems."

Unconventional

Pack struck out on his own in May, leaving a secure position as senior associate at White & Case in Miami during the recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

"A lot of people have told me they think I am absolutely insane for leaving a very reliable and significant paycheck in the middle of a pandemic," he said. "I think that's wrong. I think that's an opportunity to get out there and to really help businesses on the ground, many of which are being decimated financially by this virus and the effect of the openings, the closures, the openings, the closures."

Miami-Dade County started a phased reopening before the number of cases mushroomed, prompting Mayor Carlos Gimenez to again shut down indoor restaurant dining.

A South Florida restaurant chain initially tried to negotiate with its landlord and lender on its own but has been much more successful once Pack got involved.

He plans to file a Subchapter 5 bankruptcy petition, although this may change since the counter-parties became more amenable to out-of-court negotiations once faced with a court filing, Pack said.

He also represents a New York clothing store arguing it's covered by its lease's force majeure clauses.

"The landlord is trying to implement a one-size-fits-all strategy for all of their tenants," he said. "But it's just not going to work, and I think they are slowly starting to understand that."

Cases

Pack's first case out of law school as an attorney for Kirkland & Ellis in New York was Reader's Digest's Chapter 11, not a success story but nevertheless a big case for the young attorney.

The magazine was a victim of the slowdown in print publications and attempted to restructure its $2.2 billion debt in 2009, only to file for bankruptcy again in 2013.

"In terms of a success story, it's really not one," Pack conceded. "In terms of the experience that a 25-year-old would get straight out of law school, it was amazing to go through the process of a company of that size, stature and complexity."

Another notable case for the young attorney at Kirkland was the restructuring of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. grocery store chain, better known as A&P before it failed. Pack recalls the chaotic times when he had to speak with vendors pushing to seize their collateral in stores.

On his own, he is armed with diverse, expansive experience and the goal of helping businesses big and small.

"I just felt that right now more so than ever that general restructuring, reorganization background is really needed in an accessible way," he said. "It's very rare. I really want to stand out in the market for having all of those skills without having the rates of a large firm."

Born: Fort Lauderdale, 1984

Children: Asher and Celine

Spouse: Nicole Pack

Education: University of Florida, J.D., 2009, and B.S. and MAcc, 2006

Experience: Founder, Pack Law, 2020; Senior associate, White & Case, 2015-2020; Associate, Kirkland & Ellis, 2009-2013