Francesca Macchiaverna

Partner

200 East Saint Julian Street
PO Box 9848
Savannah, GA 31412-0048

Tel 912.236.0261
Fax 912.236.4936

Francesca Macchiaverna represents clients in business-to-business commercial debt collection. She is an experienced litigator who concentrates her practice in disputes involving business and commercial debts and pursuing claims and liens for creditors in the state and federal courts of Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Francesca’s clients are banks, specialty finance firms, credit analysts, commercial landlords, property managers, heavy equipment dealers, and businesses extending credit to finance sales of goods and services. She provides services in the areas of bankruptcy, creditors’ rights, real estate foreclosures, workouts and loss mitigation, adversary proceedings, preference defense, landlord-tenant matters, mechanic’s liens and bonds, health care, probate claims, and judgment collection, including foreign judgments.

Francesca was certified as a Circuit Court Mediator in the state of South Carolina in 2013.

Francesca has an AV Preeminent Rating, indicating high ethical standing, from Martindale-Hubbell.

Francesca is admitted to practice in all state and federal courts in Georgia and South Carolina as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2022, she was admitted to the North Carolina bar. She is a member of the Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights Sections of the State Bar of Georgia, the Savannah Bar Association, and the Georgia Association for Women Lawyers. She is also a member of the South Carolina bar, the South Carolina Women Lawyers Association, and the South Carolina Bankruptcy Law Association. Francesca is a frequent presenter at professional education programs on bankruptcy, credit issues, and commercial landlord-tenant topics, and she formerly authored the Greater Savannah Apartment Association legal newsletter for many years.

She received her B.A. from Emory University and her J.D. from the University of South Carolina. While in law school, she was on the editorial board and served as the articles editor for the South Carolina Environmental Law Journal.

Currently, Francesca’s primary community activity is serving as the treasurer of TEDxSavannah. She is married with two daughters.


Experience

Published Opinions

  • Young v. Catoe, 33 Fed. Appx. 133 (4th Cir. 2002)
  • Robert Michael Ardis v. Educational Credit Management Corp. (In re Ardis), 340 B.R. 309 (Bankr. S.C. 2006)
  • SunTrust Bank v. Global One, L.L.C. (In re Global One, L.L.C.), 411 B.R. 524 (Bankr. S.D. Ga. 2009)
  • Gerguis v. Statesboro HMA Medical Group, LLC, No. A14A1616, 2015 WL 1215045 (Ga.Ct.App. March 18, 2015)
  • Gray Tybee, II, LLC, et al. v. Charles W. Coker, Jr. (In the Matter of Coker), 569 B.R. 521 (Bankr. S.D. Ga. 2017)

Community Work

  • TEDxSavannah: Board Treasurer
  • Delta Gamma Alumnae Association
  • South Carolina Bankruptcy Law Association: Presenter, 2021
  • Leadership Southeast Georgia: Class of 2019
  • Leadership Savannah: Class of 2016-2017
  • ALFA International: Bankruptcy Law Presenter, 2019
  • Coastal Bankruptcy Law Institute: Presenter, 2017-2018
  • Coastal Heritage Society: Board of Trustees, 2013-2018; Executive Board, 2019-2021
  • Georgia High School Mock Trial Program: Scoring or Presiding Judge
  • South Carolina High School Mock Trial Program: Scoring or Presiding Judge

Credentials

Education

University of South Carolina School of Law: J.D., 1999
Emory University: B.A., 1994

Clerkships

South Carolina Circuit Court: The Honorable James E. Lockemy

Affiliations

  • State Bar of Georgia: Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights Section
  • Savannah Bar Association
  • Georgia Association for Women Lawyers: Savannah Chapter, Past President, 2011-2012
  • South Carolina Bar: Board of Governors’ Task Force – Lawyers in Transition
  • South Carolina Women Lawyers Association
  • South Carolina Bankruptcy Law Association
  • ALFA International: Bankruptcy Law Working Group

Recognition

Georgia Super Lawyers: Business Litigation, 2023
Super Lawyers is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The selection process is multi-phased and includes independent research, peer nominations and peer evaluations.

Martindale-Hubbell: AV Rated
The Martindale-Hubbell® PEER REVIEW RATINGS™ are an objective indicator of a lawyer’s high ethical standards and professional ability, generated from evaluations of lawyers by other members of the bar and the judiciary in the United States and Canada.

Licensed In

Georgia
North Carolina
South Carolina

Insights

Presentations

Bankruptcy Subchapter V
CLE virtual event presented by Francesca Macchiaverna, Christine Brimm, and Kerk Spong for the South Carolina Bankruptcy Lawyers Association on September 21, 2021.

Bankruptcy Issues as a Result of COVID-19 – Small Business Reorganization Act and CARES Act
Francesca Macchiaverna served as a panelist for this webinar by ALFA International’s Business Litigation Practice Group on May 5, 2020.

Bank it! A Game That Tests Your Bankruptcy Knowledge – a PowerPoint gameshow based on $100,000 Pyramid
ALFA International Client Seminar presented by Francesca Macchiaverna on behalf of the Bankruptcy Working Group from February 28 to March 2, 2019.

Ethics: Jeoparody! – a PowerPoint gameshow based on Jeopardy!
Presented at the Coastal Bankruptcy Law Institute Seminar on April 20, 2018.

Landlord Tenant Law Seminar
Presented for the Greater Savannah Apartment Association on April 21, 2016.

Credit Presentation for the National Association of Credit Management Seminar
Presented in Savannah, Georgia, on March 10, 2016.

News