James Salwen
Counselhe/they
jsalwen@akingump.com
Areas of Focus
- Financial Restructuring
- Energy & Infrastructure
- Health Care & Life Sciences
- Health Care Litigation & Investigations
- Product Liability
- Private Capital
Biography
- Assists official committees of unsecured creditors and tort claimants in navigating the bankruptcy process.
- Advises in financial restructuring matters and related litigation.
James Salwen represents debtors, creditors and other interested parties in complex chapter 11 cases, out-of-court restructurings and bankruptcy-related litigation. Mr. Salwen has particular experience in the mass tort context, having represented an official committee of plaintiffs in every opioid-related bankruptcy case filed to date. Before joining Akin, Mr. Salwen was a bankruptcy associate at an international law firm and a law clerk to the Honorable Robert D. Drain in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
Representative Work
- Rite Aid: Counsel to the Official Committee of Tort Claimants in connection with the chapter 11 cases of Rite Aid Corporation, one of the many co-defendants alleged to have been responsible for the opioid crisis.
- Purdue Pharma: Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the chapter 11 cases of Purdue Pharma and its affiliates, the privately held pharmaceutical company and maker of OxyContin, involving over a trillion dollars of asserted claims.
- Alex Jones: Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, on a pro bono basis, in the chapter 11 case of right-wing media personality Alex Jones, which was commenced following the entry of more than $1.5 billion in state court judgments against Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, as a result of Jones’s defamatory comments regarding the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
- Endo International: Counsel to the Official Committee of Opioid Claimants in the chapter 11 cases of Endo International and its affiliates, an American-Irish generics and specialty branded pharmaceutical company, involving hundreds of billions of dollars of asserted claims.
- HONX: Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the chapter 11 case of HONX, a subsidiary of Hess Oil, that owned and operated a refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands, involving hundreds of millions of dollars of potential asbestos liabilities.
- Mallinckrodt: Counsel to the Official Committee of Opioid Related Claimants in the chapter 11 cases of Mallinckrodt and its affiliates, an American-Irish pharmaceuticals company, involving hundreds of billions of dollars of asserted claims. Restructuring of the Year (The Deal)
EducationJ.D., New York University School of Law, magna cum laude, 2016
B.A., St. John's College, 2009
J.D., New York University School of Law, magna cum laude, 2016
B.A., St. John's College, 2009
ClerkshipsU.S.B.C., Southern District of New York
U.S.B.C., Southern District of New York
Bar AdmissionsNew York
New York
