Overview

James Matour concentrates his practice in corporate reorganization, bankruptcy, and commercial workouts, and has more than 40 years of experience representing debtors, creditors, and other parties in bankruptcy cases. He also has extensive experience handling mergers and acquisitions of both healthy and distressed businesses, as well as other corporate transactions. Jim is listed in both Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, and Best Lawyers in America.

Jim’s approach is to focus, first and foremost, on finding a business solution to a distressed situation, using legal strategies to execute the business plan through negotiation, refinancing, sale of the enterprise, or, if necessary, Chapter 11. Chambers and Partners describe him as a “standout lawyer who is practical, has a strong business approach, and has unbelievable rapport with judges.” Also, Jim never loses sight of the personal challenge and stress of facing business distress and is gratified to count many of his former clients as his closest friends.

Representative Experience

  • Guided a highly regarded, financially distressed, non-profit school for students with special needs through a dramatic downsizing, introduced a private lender who provided a $1million bridge loan within a week and avoided closure by negotiating the sale of the school to a for-profit company, which also required obtaining Attorney General approval in 2 weeks.
  • Successfully reorganized a state-of-the-art, full-service pet business through Chapter 11 and confirmed a reorganization plan that included the cramdown of the bank lender’s claim which was reduced by over 30%. The business is thriving and the founders remain in control.
  • Represented a large commercial printer in a continually shrinking market in a series of out of court restructurings and refinancings over a period of 20 years, with substantial debt relief realized on each round. 
  • Represented a domestic manufacturer of high end, household name brand, specialized sporting goods in a business restructure, refinancing and ultimate successful sale of the enterprise.
  • Aggressively represented a non-institutional creditor in the Chapter 11 case of a specialized defense contractor with little liquidation value and succeeded in obtaining the right to promulgate a competing reorganization plan, with the result that the creditor was paid in full, with interest, and was awarded substantial fees and expenses for making a substantial contribution in the case.
  • Represented the founder and co-owner of a nationally prominent, multi-state residential and outpatient behavioral health institution in a highly contested Chapter 11 case that resulted in substantial debt reduction, with the founder emerging as the sole owner without additional cash investment.

Professional & Community Activities

Professional Activities

  • Adjunct Professor, Lehigh University M.B.A. Program, Course:  “Surviving Downturn” (2012-2018)
  • Member, Turnaround Management Association
  • Health Care Insolvency Committee, American Bankruptcy Institute, 1995–Present
  • Contributing Editor, The Bankruptcy Strategist, 1985–2000
  • Member, Philadelphia Bar Association
  • Member, American Bar Association

Community Activities 

  • Board of Directors, Union League of Philadelphia
  • Chairman, Board of Trustees, PYO Music Institute (formerly, Philadelphia Youth Orchestra) – Chair, 2018-2021
  • Board of Trustees, Abraham Lincoln Foundation, 2013–2018
  • Board of Directors, Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Project, 1994–2017
  • Board of Directors, Philly Pops, 2012-2022

Speeches & Presentations

  • “Turnarounds and Bankruptcy,” Lehigh University College of Business and Economics.
  • “Successful Workouts,” Reed Seminars Video.
  • “Representing Directors and Officers,” Bench-Bar Conference.
  • “Fundamentals of Chapter 11,” Pennsylvania Bar Institute.
  • “Chapter 11 Issues,” Pennsylvania Judicial Conference.
  • “Asset Protection,” Philadelphia Bar Association.

Professional Recognition

  • Selected to The Best Lawyers in America® in the area of Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law, 2007–2023
  • Selected to Philadelphia Best Lawyers “Lawyer of the Year”, Bankruptcy Law category, 2021
  • Named a Lawdragon 500 Leading U.S. Bankruptcy & Restructuring Lawyer, 2020-present.
  • Named a Leader in Bankruptcy/Restructuring by Chambers USA–America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, 2006–present
  • Named by Pennsylvania Super Lawyers magazine as a top attorney in Bankruptcy Law as the result of a statewide poll of lawyers, 2004–present
  • Editor, Delaware Journal of Corporate Law, 1978–1980

No aspect of these rankings has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Further information on methodologies is available via these links.

Representative Experience

  • Guided a highly regarded, financially distressed, non-profit school for students with special needs through a dramatic downsizing, introduced a private lender who provided a $1million bridge loan within a week and avoided closure by negotiating the sale of the school to a for-profit company, which also required obtaining Attorney General approval in 2 weeks.
  • Successfully reorganized a state-of-the-art, full-service pet business through Chapter 11 and confirmed a reorganization plan that included the cramdown of the bank lender’s claim which was reduced by over 30%. The business is thriving and the founders remain in control.
  • Represented a large commercial printer in a continually shrinking market in a series of out of court restructurings and refinancings over a period of 20 years, with substantial debt relief realized on each round. 
  • Represented a domestic manufacturer of high end, household name brand, specialized sporting goods in a business restructure, refinancing and ultimate successful sale of the enterprise.
  • Aggressively represented a non-institutional creditor in the Chapter 11 case of a specialized defense contractor with little liquidation value and succeeded in obtaining the right to promulgate a competing reorganization plan, with the result that the creditor was paid in full, with interest, and was awarded substantial fees and expenses for making a substantial contribution in the case.
  • Represented the founder and co-owner of a nationally prominent, multi-state residential and outpatient behavioral health institution in a highly contested Chapter 11 case that resulted in substantial debt reduction, with the founder emerging as the sole owner without additional cash investment.

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