Biography
Selinda A. Melnik is a partner in DLA Piper’s Restructuring practice, based in Wilmington, Delaware and New York City. An internationally recognized lawyer, during her 27 years of practice she has represented every type of domestic and non-US party and committee customarily involved in sophisticated insolvency proceedings, out-of-court restructurings, and front-end transaction bankruptcy protection and strategic planning. She is particularly known for her career-long international insolvency law work, having represented parties from more than 20 countries in proceedings pending throughout the world, including as counsel to the first multi-national creditors’ committee and to the first non-US commercial debtor to obtain a US Chapter 15 recognition order, as well as for her recommendation by Airports Council International as preferred bankruptcy counsel to member airports and airport authorities.
Ms. Melnik worked with the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law to develop the Model Cross-Border Insolvency Law, incorporated into US bankruptcy law as chapter 15. She has conducted workshops on Chapter 15 and cross-border insolvency for US bankruptcy judges at the invitation of the Federal Judicial Center, the continuing education arm of the US Judiciary, and for judges and practitioners on four continents. She frequently is invited to act as a consultant to governments, law reform committees and organizations, advising on international insolvency and corporate recovery law, law reform and the development of legal and judicial infrastructure.
Numerous peer-review publications have also selected her as a leading practitioner, particularly with respect to international insolvency law. Legal 500 has recognized her for her corporate restructuring practice, calling her an “excellent bankruptcy attorney, with extensive experience representing airports impacted by airline bankruptcies.” She has also been named in the Euromoney Guide to the World’s Leading Insolvency & Restructuring Lawyers. The International Who’s Who of Insolvency & Restructuring Lawyers and The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers have named her in every year since the inception of these guides.
Before attending law school, Ms. Melnik received a two-year Master’s Degree in Policy and Planning, then worked in international public policy and economic development for eight years, including as personal Program Associate to John D. Rockefeller 3rd and as consultant to the Ford Foundation, the United Nations and the White House.
Ms. Melnik frequently lectures internationally on domestic and cross-border insolvency law and financial transactions, on the impact of insolvency in the aviation and insurance industries, on bankruptcy protection planning and on women, economic development and economic empowerment. She is past chair of the Section on Insolvency, Restructuring & Creditors’ Rights of the International Bar Association (IBA), the largest international legal organization, founder of IWIRC: the International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation (for which she received the Corporate Legal Times Distinguished Legal Services Award), as well as an active member of INSOL International, the World Bank’s Insolvency Task Force and Airports Council International. During her 25-year membership in the IBA, she also has served as a member of the IBA Council, Vice Chair of IBA’s Committee on Legal Practice and World Organizations, and Official IBA Representative to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, the World Bank Global Insolvency Initiative, the World Bank/Harvard/IBA Project on Domestic Insolvency Law, the IMF and the Columbia University Institute for Policy Directives Bankruptcy Task Force.
Expert Articles
- Certainty and predictability in cross-border proceedings (January 15, 2013)