Palm Beach lawyer Joel Koeppel files for bankruptcy

Joel Koeppel, with wife Carole, and comedian Robert Klein in Mar-a-Lago (Courtesy Davidoff Studios)
Despite an extensive Palm Beach clientele, big deal real estate attorney Joel Koeppel just filed for bankruptcy.
In paperwork delivered to the federal court in West Palm Beach, Koeppel claims to owe between $1 million and $10 million to 10 creditors, including Amex, Bank of America, Colonial Bank and the IRS.
He also owes about $1 million to his former law partners, who accused him in a lawsuit they recently won of ripping them off. Former partners Larry M. Mesches and Stuart Gottlieb claimed Koeppel wrote himself checks drawn from the firm’s accounts to pay for things like his membership to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
Mesches and Gottlieb won $857,187, plus court and attorneys’ fees.
Koeppel filed for bankruptcy Oct. 28, the day he was supposed to be deposed by Mesches in legal action to force Koeppel to cough up the dough.
“We don’t know what his intentions are in filing for bankruptcy,” Mesches said, “whether it’s to delay or avoid paying us. But we’re now checking into whether he transferred assets, which could be illegal.”
Koeppel has been involved with many charitable and civic organizations over the years, including the Town of Palm Beach’s powerful Code Compliance Board. He couldn’t be reached at his offfice and didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment.














