Joanna M. Kornafel

Joanna M. Kornafel is a partner with Green & Sklarz LLC in New Haven, Conn., where she represents individuals and clients with complex financial and litigation needs in a wide array of industries such as health care, construction, horticulture, retail and hospitality. Her practice focuses on commercial bankruptcy, civil litigation matters, unfair trade practices (CUTPA), business torts, breach of contracts, debtor/creditor litigation, workouts, bankruptcy litigation and other commercial litigation matters. Ms. Kornafel has experience handling all aspects of bankruptcies and workouts, representing secured and unsecured creditors, debtors, bankruptcy trustees and acquirers of businesses in chapter 11 bankruptcies. In addition, she has represented clients in state and federal courts and has prosecuted and defended evidentiary hearings related to applications for preliminary injunctions, applications for prejudgment remedy, and contested matters in bankruptcy court. Ms. Kornafel is actively involved in the Connecticut Bar Association (CBA) and currently serves as the co-chair of the annual Connecticut Bankruptcy Conference. She is the current vice chair of the Connecticut Network of the International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation (IWIRC), and she was selected as a Fellow of the American Bar Association for Business Law (2019-21). She has been a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation since 2017. In 2020, Ms. Kornafel received the CBA’s Vanguard Award, and she was listed as a Connecticut Super Lawyers “Rising Star” from 2019-21 and a “Super Lawyer” from 2024 in the area of business bankruptcy. Prior to attending law school, she worked for several years for the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Ms. Kornafel is admitted to practice in Connecticut, Massachusetts, the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, the U.S. Tax Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. She received her B.A. with honors from McGill University in Montréal and her J.D. from Boston College Law School. While in law school, she was selected for the London Study Abroad Program, where she interned in the General Counsel Division at the Financial Services Authority and attended classes at King’s College London. She was also a student attorney in the Civil Litigation Clinic at the Boston College Litigation Assistance Bureau, where she represented clients with a variety of legal problems, including child guardianship issues, landlord/tenant disputes and Social Security disability appeals.