Rafael X. Zahralddin-Aravena practices in the Bankruptcy and Reorganization group, where he concentrates in the areas of bankruptcy and creditors' rights, and international and comparative law.
He has served as special conflicts counsel, representing the debtor, in the sale of the pharmaceutical division of two publicly traded and affiliated healthcare providers in bankruptcy. He has represented purchasers in bankruptcy sales as well, including the purchaser of substantially all the assets of one of the largest consulting, engineering, construction, remediation and facilities management companies in the country. He also represented a Mexican purchaser of the Mexican subsidiary of a privately held 11-facility printing company in liquidation.
He has represented the official creditor's committees in the bankruptcy cases of an automotive supply company supplying automotive OEMs in Europe and North America; a motor coach operator company; and a leading producer and marketer of fabricated aluminum products, alumina and primary aluminum.
Creditor committee representative constituencies include the federal government, labor, trade creditors, and bondholders. He has represented a variety of creditors in Delaware Bankruptcy Court, including landlords, trade creditors, government entities, preference defendants, secured lenders, indentured trustees and unofficial committees of bondholders. He has also represented a metals supply company; a telecommunications company; and one of the world's largest insurance companies, as creditors, in Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 cases nationally and, most recently, in the Second, Fourth, Sixth and Ninth Circuit Courts. Mr. Zahralddin also has debtor experience and his debtor representations have ranged from lead counsel for local Delaware businesses to Delaware local counsel and co-counsel to publicly traded companies. He has also been independent counsel to debtors' professionals with fee disputes in Federal Bankruptcy Court.
Prior to joining Morris James, Mr. Zahralddin clerked for The Honorable Samuel L. Bufford of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California. He was also a member of the founding faculty of and an Associate Professor of Law at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, California. He has held various leadership positions in the American Society of International Law and the American Bar Association, where he is currently a member of the Business Law Section and the Section on International Law and Practice. He was recently the Vice Chair of the Inter-American Law Committee in the Section on International Law and Practice. He is also a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the Delaware Bankruptcy Inns of Court and the United States Secretary of State Advisory Group on Private International Law, Transnational Insolvency Committee.
He has a B.S. degree in Architecture from the University of Virginia and a J.D. degree from the Widener University School of Law, where he served as an Articles Editor for the law review and was published as a law student. He received his LL.M in International and Comparative Law from Georgetown University Law Center where he was a Senior Writing Fellow. Mr. Zahralddin is also fluent in Spanish.
He is admitted to practice in Delaware, Pennsylvania, California, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.