Joshua Celeste was named a partner at the Providence law firm of Duffy & Sweeney Ltd. in June, making him the youngest partner at the firm and the youngest person to be named a partner since the law office was established 15 years ago. He has worked at Duffy & Sweeney for just two years and is the firm’s third-largest revenue producer.
He has been practicing law as a corporate attorney for 10 years, previously working at Adler, Pollock & Sheehan in Providence, where he was a member of the mergers and acquisition team devoted to the Cookson Group. This work provided him with valuable experience on an international scale.
At Duffy & Sweeney, significant transactions he recently completed include: the private placement of $12 million of capital for Isis Biopolymer Inc. through angel and venture capital financing that allowed the company to commercialize its technology on a national scale; the structuring, financing and acquisition of a health care systems component manufacturer located in the Netherlands with an approximate purchase price of $20 million; structuring the refinancing of a hotel portfolio comprised of 12 hotels by a real estate private equity fund; and the merger and acquisition of two southeastern New England waste transportation and recycling businesses that doubled in size, revenue and market share.
“The intensity and demands of the modern legal practice can be overwhelming at times,” Celeste said. He has become a mentor to younger attorneys, a key factor in his recent promotion, he said.
A member of the board of directors of the Rhode Island chapter of the March of Dimes, he credits his mother, Patricia Celeste, as the most influential person in his career. “She raised two energetic boys by herself,” he said, and instilled in him the importance of “loyalty to those around you, to yourself and to your values.” •
