John Brewer

Since the founding of Amini LLC, John has been a core member of our leadership team. John has a distinguished track record in bankruptcy-related litigation, particularly with companies undergoing financial distress or restructuring. His expertise extends to professional malpractice litigation, representing large firms as well as the parties pursuing claims against them.

John’s expertise is demonstrated by his success in a high-profile $100 million federal lawsuit, where he obtained the dismissal of all claims, including both RICO and state-law claims, while claims against the majority of other defendants were sustained. As the case escalated, John played a pivotal role in obtaining the appellate court decision to disqualify opposing counsel due to conflicts of interest.

His practice covers a wide range of business disputes, focusing on complex contractual and fiduciary duty claims as well as securities, antitrust, fraud, RICO defense, and other commercial statutes. He is our firm’s go-to expert for litigation with an international dimension, often handling jurisdictional disputes between US and foreign governments or non-US entities, and serves as a leader of our appellate practice, having successfully argued appeals in both the federal and state appellate courts.

John is committed to Amini’s active pro bono litigation docket and is particularly passionate about prisoners’ rights. He has represented numerous state and federal inmates seeking sentence reductions for non-violent drug offenses. John was instrumental in Amini LLC’spro bonocase which finally released Imhotep H’SHaka from an unlawful, 24-year-long solitary confinement.

John’s expertise has been consistently recognized by Super Lawyers, which has named him a top business litigation attorney in New York City annually since 2019 – a distinction only given to the top 5% of attorneys in New York State after a rigorous selection process.

Significant Litigation Victories & Notable Cases:

• Protecting Shareholder Rights: Successfully represented minority shareholders in a cruise ship company seeking to avoid improper dilution of their holdings and obtain relief for self-dealing by management and majority investors; case settled on favorable terms after defendants’ initial motions were argued.
• Lead Counsel at Delaware Chancery Court: Lead counsel in both pretrial and appellate briefings in successful Delaware Chancery Court trial on behalf of an investment fund in dispute against a former asset manager.  
• International Debt Defense: Represented holders of the defaulted U.S. dollar-denominated debt of a major foreign media company, leading to an involuntary bankruptcy petition in U.S. courts.    
• Challenged Bankruptcy Strategy: Represented an overseas creditor against multiple individuals using tactical U.S. bankruptcy filings in order to forestall foreign court judgments against them; obtained dismissals of the cases as bad-faith filings.   
• Defending Against Professional Malpractice: Represented a public company in out-of-court resolution over a multi-million-dollar dispute with its former counsel, an AmLaw 50 law firm, involving issues of unauthorized and excessive billing, malpractice, and conflict of interest. 
• Upholding Jurisdictional Integrity: Successfully argued motion to dismiss New York federal court action against Canadian defendant, on ground that court should defer to parallel litigation between same parties in the Ontario courts.
• Second Circuit Reversal: Obtained (pro bono) Second Circuit reversal of federal district court’s denial of petition for reduced sentence for a non-violent drug offender.
• Represented (pro bono) former members and critics of a controversial religious community faced with a suppressive defamation lawsuit intended to silence them; successfully argued motion to dismiss action.