Adam Silverstein

Partner with Otterbourg PC

Mr. Silverstein has been a complex commercial litigator for over thirty years. He has successfully first-chaired both jury and non-jury trials through verdict, litigated arbitrations through award and confirmation, and argued appeals in both federal and state courts, in New York and elsewhere.

Mr. Silverstein has substantial experience litigating corporate attempts to resolve mass tort liabilities in bankruptcy. In the successful multi-firm effort to dismiss the In re Aearo Technologies, LLC (3M) bankruptcy earlier this year, he delivered the opening statement, split the closing argument with Eric Winston of Quinn Emanuel, and examined multiple witnesses at trial on behalf of the Official Committee of Combat Arms Earplug Claimants and the more than 200,000 veterans, service members and independent contractors, who collectively moved to dismiss the bankruptcy as a bad faith filing. The landmark decision of the bankruptcy court, the first ever to dismiss a mass tort bankruptcy at the trial level, largely adopted the movants’ arguments. A year earlier, at the outset of the Aearo bankruptcy, Mr. Silverstein played a significant role at trial in another successful multi-firm effort to defeat the debtors’ attempt to stay and enjoin the 3M Products Liability MDL. The denial of stay protection and preliminary injunctive relief in a mass tort bankruptcy was another first by a bankruptcy court.

In the recent multi-firm effort to dismiss the second LTL Management, LLC (Johnson & Johnson) bankruptcy, Mr. Silverstein directed or cross-examined four experts at trial on the subject of the respective capabilities of the tort system versus the bankruptcy system to globally resolve mass tort disputes involving future claims. In 2021 and 2022, in the first LTL bankruptcy, he litigated, and presented closing argument, on behalf of (initially) MDL leadership and (subsequently) the Official Committee of Talc Claimants in opposition to stay protection and preliminary injunctive relief in favor of Johnson & Johnson. The first LTL bankruptcy was subsequently dismissed on appeal by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the first appellate court to dismiss a mass tort bankruptcy.
Mr. Silverstein’s experience also includes litigating and advising clients in a broad array of other industries and with respect to a wide range of other subjects, including: creditors’ rights and lender liability; corporate governance and control; securities fraud; sponsorships and licenses; trade secrets, unfair competition and employment contracts; trusts and estates; higher education; intellectual property; and insurance coverage.

Mr. Silverstein has been selected for inclusion each year from 2009 through present as a New York Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers Magazine and long has been rated AV Preeminent by Martindale Hubbell. He is a member of the New York State and New York City Bar Associations and of the American Bankruptcy Institute. His closing argument on behalf of MasterCard in the FIFA World Cup injunction trial is quoted in Andrew Jenning’s “FOUL! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote-Rigging and Ticket Scandals” (paperback edition 2008).

Education:
B.A., with distinction in all subjects – Cornell University – 1988
J.D. cum laude – University of Pennsylvania – 1992

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