Neal D. Colton is senior counsel to Cozen O’Connor and its Bankruptcy, Insolvency & Restructuring Practice Group. He joined the firm in 1995 and chaired the Bankruptcy Group from its formation in 1995 through 2011. Prior to that, Neal served as chairman of the Bankruptcy Department at Dechert. Neal provides sophisticated counseling on all aspects of corporate insolvency and restructuring, including identifying and achieving defined goals through business and litigation strategies.
Neal has experience managing a broad range of corporate and litigation matters. He focuses on international and domestic insolvency, creditors’ rights, bankruptcy, and restructuring and reorganization matters. He represents corporate debtors, secured and unsecured creditors’ committees, investors, foreign representatives, landlords, and equipment lessors involved in large chapter 11 cases throughout the United States. He also represents purchasers of businesses or segments of businesses that are troubled or failing; institutional mortgagees in major commercial real estate insolvencies and restructurings; and parties to leveraged buy-outs both in and out of chapter 11. Neal regularly counsels lenders on lender liability matters, equitable subordination issues, and internal fraud investigations, and has served as an expert witness.
With more than four decades of experience, Neal is a recognized leader in the national bankruptcy bar. He is a fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy, member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, member of INSOL, and fellow and life member of the American Bar Foundation. He is actively involved in the American Bar Association, serving as a member of the business law section and its business bankruptcy committee; chapter 11, executory contracts, and secured creditors subcommittees; commercial financial services committee and its subcommittees on creditors’ rights and aircraft financing; and the litigation section and its bankruptcy and insolvency committee. Neal was named a Certified Bankruptcy Specialist by the American Board of Certification and is a member of the Council of Certified Bankruptcy Specialists. He is a certified mediator for the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts in the District of Delaware and Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
In addition to his work in private practice, Neal has engaged in numerous professional endeavors. He served as director of the Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Project (1995-2011), member of the Steering Committee of the Eastern District Bankruptcy Conference (1995-2011), member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s task force assigned to redraft Pennsylvania’s Fraudulent Transfer Act, and panelist for the Third Circuit Judicial Conference. Neal has also held a number of teaching positions, both in the United States and abroad. He was adjunct professor of law at Temple University Beasley School of Law, visiting professor of law at Japan School of Law in Tokyo, lecturer at National Judges College of the Supreme People’s Court of China in Beijing, lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School Graduate Entrepreneurial Center, and lecturer for many accredited Continuing Legal Education Programs.
Neal’s community service work includes board positions in several area nonprofits. He was a trustee of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Greater Delaware Valley Chapter (1996-2005), founding director of Radnor ABC (A Better Chance) (1972-1982), and trustee of the Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Project (1996 – 2011).
He has an undergraduate degree in political science and economics from the University of Pittsburgh, an M.B.A. from Columbia University, and a J.D. from Temple University’s James E. Beasley School of Law.
