Douglas E. Spelfogel

Douglas E. Spelfogel is a co-chair of Jenner & Block’s Bankruptcy and Restructuring Practice in New York. He specializes in guiding financial institutions, private-equity firms, hedge funds, creditors, creditors’ committees, trustees and corporate leaders through complex restructurings and business reorganizations, as well as cross-border proceedings. His practice often involves high-stakes, multi-billion-dollar transactions, whether through out-of-court negotiations or in chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Mr. Spelfogel has represented clients in dozens of landmark cases and has served as lead counsel for various parties in national reorganizations and liquidations, including JCPenney, Peabody Energy, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities and American Airlines. He frequently acts as lead counsel for significant stakeholders in major national reorganizations and liquidations, earning accolades for “Restructuring Deal of the Year,” among other awards. Mr. Spelfogel has experience in handling high-profile bankruptcies and cross-border cases. His representation spans Fortune 100 companies, major financial institutions, and fiduciaries involved in a range of bankruptcy proceedings and litigation. Notably, he has served as counsel to the Special SIPA trustee in the largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history and advised trustees managing multibillion-dollar secured and unsecured debt restructurings. He also has led litigation teams in fraud cases with claims exceeding $1 billion. Previously, Mr. Spelfogel led the Restructuring and Corporate Trust and Bondholders Rights practices at other Am Law 100 law firms. Earlier in his career, he served as a senior trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, where he oversaw some of the largest chapter 11 cases in New York. His role there, earned under the prestigious Attorney General’s Honors Program, involved supervising hundreds of high-profile corporate reorganizations, leading trials, presiding over statutory meetings of creditors, and responding to congressional and public inquiries. In addition to his practice, Mr. Spelfogel is a sought-after speaker and educator, lecturing before bar associations and trade organizations, including the New York State Bar Association on Bankruptcy Law, ABI and the National Business Institute on revised Article 9 secured transactions, commercial lending and bankruptcy law. He also co-authored a chapter for Reorganizing Failing Businesses: A Comprehensive Review and Analysis of Financial Restructuring and Business Reorganization, Third Edition, and he has taught bankruptcy law courses at Hofstra University and Lehman College, City University of New York, as well as served as a moot court competition judge at Touro University Law School and St. John’s University Law School. Mr. Spelfogel received his B.A. from George Washington University and his J.D. from New England Law.