Rafael X. Zahralddin
Rafael X. Zahralddin-Aravena is a Shareholder, Director and Chair of the firm’s Commercial Bankruptcy and Restructuring Department.
The firm’s Wilmington office concentrates its practice representing the interests of local, regional, national and multi-national businesses.
Mr. Zahralddin is a business lawyer who concentrates his practice in the areas of, commercial bankruptcy and restructuring, commercial litigation (including corporate, intellectual property and bankruptcy litigation), creditors’ rights, corporate law and entity formation, corporate counseling, international and comparative law, corporate compliance and related regulation, including under the Federal Corrupt Practices Act, commercial transactions, and cyber law.
He is also a Six Sigma Greenbelt and has lectured and trained in-house and outside law firms in legal project management, lean practices, and Six Sigma application to value added provision of legal services.
Mr. Zahralddin has also represented a variety of businesses, including large privately held and publicly traded companies, including several established multi-national corporations, in commercial litigation, in disputes over licensing, privacy and cyber security laws, federal regulation of transportation, directors and officers liability, professional liability of consultants and other professionals, federal and state regulation over perishable goods, secured transactions, contractual disputes, cross border transactions, insurance (including political risk insurance), and distressed mergers and acquisitions in federal and state court.
Mr. Zahralddin’s extensive experience as a commercial litigator also includes experience with the Uniform Commercial Code; Convention for the International Sale of Goods; creditors’ rights; construction; debt collection and enforcement of judgments; unclaimed property workouts, compliance, and litigation; lien rights, (including bonds and surety issues); admiralty; and tax liens; antitrust concerns for creditors, including the Sherman Act, Clayton Act, Robinson-Patman Act, and FTC Act; and cross border and international sales and financing issues. Mr. Zahralddin has also litigated appeals in state and federal courts.
Mr. Zahralddin has represented a variety of constituencies in some of the largest bankruptcies in the United States, including a variety of individual creditors, creditors’ committees, equity committees, chapter 11 Trustees, and post confirmation trusts.
Mr. Zahralddin has represented statutory employee committees, most recently representing former Nortel ERISA plan participants and successfully securing their continued care and coverage throughout the insolvency proceedings and reaching and liquidating a settlement package of over $52 million for the disabled employees and their families.
Mr. Zahralddin’s debtor representations, while working for several nationally known debtors’ firms, have ranged from local businesses to large publicly traded companies.
Mr. Zahralddin leads the firm’s representation as special litigation counsel to statutory committees and debtors, most recently for Washington Mutual, Inc., GWLS Holdings, Inc. (Greatwide), and Qimonda Richmond, LLC, and AgFeed bankruptcies.
He has provided corporate legal counseling to entities ranging from small and medium sized enterprises to publically traded companies, including advising and handling matters involving the Delaware Secretary of State in formation, compliance, and regulatory issues.
He has also been active in distressed mergers and acquisitions, federal and state court receiverships, and in the merger of insurance companies.
Elliott Greenleaf’s success in its representation of the Official Committee of Equity Security Holders in AgFeed USA, Inc. resulted in it being named among the firms that received the M&A Advisor Turnaround and International M&A Advisor awards for: 2014 M&A Deal of the Year (Over $50mm to $75mm); Agriculture Deal of the Year; and Sec. 363 Sale of the Year (Over $50mm to $100mm) in March 2014.
The firm and Mr. Zahralddin, also received the Large Company Transaction of the Year Award in 2014 from the Turnaround Management Association, a global non-profit organization comprised of turnaround and corporate renewal professionals.
He has held various leadership positions in the American Bar Association, including in the Business Law Section and the Section of International Law.
He is currently Co-Editor of the Reorganizing Failing Businesses treatise published by the American Bar Association where he is also a co-author for several chapters, including chapters on creditors and equity shareholders committees, employee issues, and corporate governance and fiduciary duties in a distressed situation.
He has also held various leadership positions within the American Bankruptcy Institute, including Co-Education Director for the ABI International Committee and as an Advisory Board Member for the ABI Cross-Border Insolvency Conference.
Mr. Zahralddin is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors where he is a Governance Fellow. He is a 2015 Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Fellow and member of the Fellows Alumni Executive Committee.
He is also a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation (Membership in The Fellows is limited to less than one percent of lawyers licensed to practice in each jurisdiction).
