• T:  646.783.1964
• C:  917.981.9630
• F:  888.757.7102
• E:  kelakos@fsblegal.com

• Salans, LLP
• Heller Ehrman  LLP

• New York

• University of Denver College of Law, J.D., 1982
• Brandeis University, B.A. Politics, Cum Laude, 1979

• French
• Hebrew, conversational
• Italian
• Mandarin, studying
• Thai, conversational

Mr. Kelakos has over 28 years of experience as an attorney and advisor in the fields of domestic and cross-border business insolvency and reorganization and distressed mergers and acquisitions.  He has extensive experience representing both sellers and buyers of intellectual property assets and as a mediator and mediation advocate, both in the U.S. and in Asia.  Mr Kelakos has also served as an Assignee for the Benefit of Creditors in a commercial case in Massachusetts and most recently, as a chapter 11 trustee in a case involving a U.S. public entity whose sole assets consisted of equity interests in Chinese joint venture companies.  Mr. Kelakos' past and current clients include domestic and Asia-based debtor companies, acquirers of distressed assets, businesses and intellectual property assets, official creditors' committees, chapter 7 and 11 trustees, domestic and Asia-based private equity groups and alternative lenders, and state and federal court receivers and common law assignees for the benefit of creditors.  Mr. Kelakos also has extensive experience in working in Greater China and Southeast Asia, both on private sector engagements as well as on public sector matters, primarily on World Bank and USAID-funded projects in the Kingdom of Thailand.  With respect to the public sector capacity-building projects, Mr. Kelakos has taught basic and advanced mediation techniques and skills to judges, professionals, prominent business leaders and government officials in Thailand, to representatives from other ASEAN member states and most recently, in the Republic of Egypt to judges of the Egyptian Economic Court.

In addition to his legal practice, Mr. Kelakos is also the Founder and Managing Director of Greenwich Connecticut-based Kelakos Advisors LLC, where he provides Asia-focused cross-border distressed mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property buy and sell-side and transactions advisory services for domestic and Asia-based clients.

Mr. Kelakos is a frequent speaker at international and national conferences and programs on topics relating to complex cross-border insolvency issues, alternative dispute resolution and buy and sell side issues involving intellectual property assets.  Mr. Kelakos is a Founding Member of the International Insolvency Institute and serves as Co-Chair of that organization's Asian Developments Committee; he is also a very active member of the American Bankruptcy Institute and has served as the Vice President of International Affairs and as an Executive Committee Board Member and Board Member of that organization.