Skip to Content

Ralph E. Preite is a partner in the firm's Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights department. He has extensive experience handling a wide range of bankruptcy matters, including business reorganizations, stay relief, lease assumptions, cash collateral usage, 363 sales, plan confirmations, and discharge objections, and related litigation. Ralph represents a diverse clientele that includes debtors, financial institutions, leasing companies, hedge funds, broker-dealers, non-profit organizations, real estate developers, NASDAQ listed and other publicly traded companies, and bankruptcy trustees.

Before joining Cullen and Dykman, Ralph held partner roles at other law firms where he chaired restructuring groups and handled significant state court litigation and bankruptcy matters.

Ralph serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Italian heritage bar association, the Columbian Lawyers Association 1st Judicial department supporting its annual Rapallo Scalia Luncheon hosting 300 attorneys and 100 judges and the luncheon’s journal committee. 

Ralph also served on the 2025 NY County Judicial Screening Panel, conducting interviews of judicial candidates for Civil and Supreme Court positions in NY County.  The Judicial Screening Panel (a/k/a independent screening panel) provides a merit-based evaluation process established to instill public confidence in, and to reinforce impartiality to, the process of selecting judicial candidates for NY County judicial positions, and to promote qualified and diverse candidates who reflect the community’s diversity in background and experience. 

Industry leader Lexis Nexis Law360 has reported on Ralph’s chapter 11 bankruptcy clients, and Ralph has been quoted in Law 360 as well.    

Practice Areas

Industries

Admissions

  • New York
  • U.S. Court of International Trade
  • U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
  • U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
  • U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

Education

  • J.D., New York Law School, 1990
  • B.A., New York University, 1983

Representative Experience

  • Represents Debtors in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Reorganizations
  • Represents purchasers of assets from Bankruptcy estates
  • Protects and asserts secured creditors’ claims in State Court and Bankruptcy Court
  • Enforces non-US judgments in the US, including in Bankruptcy Court

Professional and Community Activities

  • Board of Directors Member & Chair, Columbian Lawyers Association First Judicial Department
  • Co-Chair Journal Committee, Columbian Lawyers Association, First Judicial Department
  • New York State Bar Association
  • Served as Epiphany School Foundation Trustee, Chaired Development, Search & Strategy Committees
  • Served as Judicial Law Clerk, Chambers of Hon. Jerome Feller, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of New York

Speaking Engagements

  • How Chapter 11 Addresses Wage Litigation, Columbian Lawyers Assoc., 2023
  • Best Practices Regarding Tech – Legal Ethics, West Legal Ed Center, 2019
  • Appeared on Law Line TV program with the late U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Denis Milton
  • Appeared on NBC network TV show Extra, as Bankruptcy Law expert