Puerto Rico

Dennis F. Dunne is practice group leader of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP’s Financial Restructuring Group in New York and a member of the firm’s Global Executive Committee. He represents debtors and creditors in reorganization cases and out-of-court workouts, acquirors of financially distressed companies, providers of financing, and boards of directors of public and private companies. He plays a leadership role in these matters, frequently as counsel to companies or official and unofficial committees representing key creditor constituencies, such as bondholders, agents for lender syndicates, and large debt or equity-holders. He also regularly represents private-equity funds, hedge funds and other financial institutions acquiring control positions in financially distressed companies, both in and out of court.

In addition, Mr. Dunne assists prospective providers of debtor-in-possession financing in structuring, structures and documents exchange and tender offers, and regularly advises boards of directors of public companies on corporate governance and fiduciary duty matters in the restructuring context. His engagements have ranged across a wide array of industries, including automotive, airline, apparel, cable and broadcasting, chemical, construction, gaming, healthcare, housing, infrastructure, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, energy, retail, shipping, telecommunications, and textiles. Mr. Dunne is a Fellow and currently the Second Circuit Regent in the American College of Bankruptcy, and he frequently speaks on restructuring and related topics at conferences around the country. He is also a Fellow in the International Insolvency Institute, and has been elected as conferee to the National Bankruptcy Conference (NBC).

Mr. Dunne is a co-author of Collier on Bankruptcy and recently co-authored a chapter entitled “Evaluating strategic debt buybacks: How to pursue effective de-leveraging strategies” in Navigating Today’s Environment: The Directors’ and Officers’ Guide to Restructuring. He is a frequent speaker at conferences sponsored by ABI and the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges.

Mr. Dunne has been listed in the K&A Register of the Leading Bankruptcy and Financial Restructuring Lawyers and Financial Advisors in the United States, as well as in Chambers Global, Chambers USA, The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business, Lawdragon 500 and The Best Lawyers in America, and he was listed as one of Turnarounds & Workouts’ “Top Restructuring Lawyers” of 2008, 2011 and 2014.

He received his J.D. from New York University School of Law and his undergraduate degree from Williams College.

Hon. Arthur J. Gonzalez (ret.) is a former Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of New York in New York, having retired on March 1, 2012, and is currently a Senior Fellow at New York University School of Law in New York, where he had served as an adjunct professor since 2008.

Following his retirement, he was appointed to the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department, Character and Fitness Committee, and in 2016 he was appointed by President Obama to the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico established under Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA). Prior to his service on the bench, Judge Gonzalez was a teacher in the New York City School System for 13 years and an attorney in the Office of Chief Counsel of the IRS, where he earned the Chief Counsel’s Special Achievement Award for three consecutive years.

Thereafter, he practiced with the firms of Pollner, Mezan, Stolzberg, Berger & Glass PC and Gaston & Snow in New York City. Judge Gonzalez was appointed Assistant U.S. Trustee in the Southern District of New York in 1991 and U.S. Trustee for Region 2 (Second Circuit) in 1993, serving in that position until his appointment to the bench in 1995 to a 14-year term and reappointed in 2009. In 2010, he was appointed Chief Judge. During his tenure, he presided over numerous large chapter 11 cases, including the Enron, WorldCom and Chrysler cases.

Judge Gonzalez earned his B.S. in accounting from Fordham University, his M.S. in education from Brooklyn College and his J.D. from Fordham Law School. He received his LL.M. in taxation from New York University Law School in 1990.

Susheel Kirpalani is a partner and chairs the Bankruptcy and Restructuring Group at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP in New York, where his practice concentrates on creditors’ rights, bankruptcy litigation and out-of-court restructurings. He has broad experience in the resolution of bankruptcy and financial disputes in some of the most complex recent chapter 11 cases, including representing the independent manager of NII International Telecom; serving as the court-appointed examiner and mediator in Dynegy; representing statutory creditors’ committees in SemGroup, Sentinel, Refco and Enron; serving as conflicts counsel to estate fiduciaries in Lehman Brothers, Idearc, Washington Mutual and Solutia; representing the officers and directors of Lukoil Americas Corp.; and representing the controlling stockholder in LyondellBasell and Sbarro. He also has broad experience in international insolvencies, leading the firm’s engagements for Dubai World in drafting Dubai’s bankruptcy legislation for public decree companies, and for the joint liquidators of Kingate Global and Euro Funds in the SIPC proceeding against Bernard L. Madoff’s defunct firm.

Previously, Mr. Kirpalani was the youngest lawyer ever elected partner at the law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP. He has been recognized in The Deal as one of eight attorneys “poised to become significant figures in the bars of cities ranging from Houston to Paris.” He was also recognized in Law360 as one of the 10 most admired bankruptcy attorneys in the country. In 2010, Chambers USA ranked him in Band One, and in 2013, The American Lawyer named him “Dealmaker of the Year.” Mr. Kirpalani is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and a recipient of the South Asian Bar Association of New York’s Litigation Achievement Award.

He received his J.D. from Fordham University School of Law, where he served as associate editor of the Fordham Law Review from 1993-94.