Garand, Melissa J.

Shylene De Jesús Rivera graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Puerto Rico’s School of Law on 2001. Upon graduating from law school, Ms. De Jesús worked as a law clerk for the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, with former Supreme Judge, Hon. Baltasar Corrada del Rio.

On January 2003, she joined the law firm of O’Neill & Borges. Until December 2011, she was a Partner in the Litigation Department of O’Neill & Borges, providing direct counseling to clients and supervising all level associates in litigations and/or potential litigations involving areas such as secured transactions, creditor’s rights, intellectual property and contract disputes.

Ms. De Jesús’ practice area primarily focuses in assisting local and foreign banks and other financing institutions in the restructuring, collection and enforcement of non-performing commercial, real estate and construction loans, including out-of-court workouts and the enforcement of security interest, judicial foreclosures under the local Mortgage Law and non-judicial foreclosures (such as “self-help”) of inventory, equipment and other type of collateral under Puerto Rico’s Commercial Transactions Act and Section 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code (“UCC”); as well as replevins, garnishments and other methods of enforcement of judgments. Her practice area also includes consumer financing litigation, defending financial institutions in claims under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”); Truth in Lending Act (“TILA”); Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) and their local counterparts.

Ms. De Jesús also has an extensive intellectual property practice, ranging from registration of trademarks before the local trademark registry and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”); prosecuting infringing uses and defending from infringement claims in litigations before state courts, federal courts, the USPTO and the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board (“TTAB”); negotiating and enforcing assignment agreements, coexistence agreements and concurrent use agreements; coordinating registration of trademarks before Latin American intellectual registries; and counseling in connection with e-commerce issues and domain name disputes.

Ms. De Jesús is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico; the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, and United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit of Boston.