Donald L. Swanson

Donald L. Swanson is a shareholder with Koley Jessen P.C., L.L.O. in Omaha, Neb., and has been practicing bankruptcy law since 1980. He grew up on a livestock farm in Nebraska’s Sandhills, became Nebraska State FFA President (1973-74), and achieved FFA’s “American Farmer Degree.” During the 1980s farm crisis, Mr. Swanson represented debtors in more than 40 chapter 12 cases, achieving a confirmed plan and discharge in all but one. In Delaware’s $1.5 billion ethanol bankruptcy (In re VeraSun), he held an ex officio seat on the creditors’ committee as counsel for the ad hoc committee of grain suppliers. Mr. Swanson is a subchapter V trustee in the District of Nebraska and serves on ABI’s Subchapter V Task Force, and he is a court-approved mediator for both the U.S. District and the U.S. Bankruptcy courts of Nebraska. He also is a member of the Nebraska Delegation to the Uniform Law Commission and serves on its Drafting Committee for a uniform law on assignments for benefit of creditors, is a court-approved mediator in both the U.S. District and Bankruptcy Courts of Nebraska, and is Board Certified in Business Bankruptcy Law by the American Board of Certification. Mr. Swanson publishes a blog on bankruptcy and mediation topics at https://mediatbankry.com, and he is rated AV-Preeminent by Martindale-Hub-bell. In addition, he is a Fellow of the Nebraska State Bar Foundation, and he has served on the board for Legal Aid of Nebraska, providing free legal services to low-income Nebraskans, and on the board for Global Partners in Hope, which provides clean drinking water and medical centers in West Africa. In 2022, as a commissioner on the Uniform Law Commission (ULC), Mr. Swanson proposed that ULC study the need for a uniform law on assignments for benefit of creditors. That proposal was accepted, and he now serves on the ULC’s Drafting Committee on Assignments for Benefit of Creditors. Mr. Swanson is a member of the Uniform Law Commission and is licensed to practice in the states of Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota. He has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers. Mr. Swanson received his A.A. from Grace University in 1976, his B.S. in political science from the University of Nebraska - Omaha in 1977, and his J.D. from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln in 1980, where he was an associate editor of the Nebraska Law Review.