Alumnus Susheel Kirpalani ’94, partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, was named one of Law360’s 2018 Bankruptcy MVPs.
Susheel Kirpalani, partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, has advised the largest group of bondholders in Puerto Rico’s restructuring as they maneuver a bankruptcy law he had a role in creating, making him one of Law360’s 2018 Bankruptcy MVPs.
Kirpalani has continued his yearslong representation of a group of municipal bondholders in a dispute over more than $17 billion in pledged Puerto Rico sales tax collections.
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“I’m a kid from Queens who didn’t know anybody,” Kirpalani said, chuckling.
Kirpalani grew up in New York City in the Queens neighborhood of Corona and attended Queens College in Flushing before graduating from Fordham Law School in 1994. On his way up, his mentor, Luc Despins, now bankruptcy chair at Paul Hastings LLP, showed him the ropes in a meaningful way. He stressed the importance of forging those bonds in an “organic” fashion, instead of through the conventional mentorship programs many law firms have adopted.
“Without that, I would have been a guy in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean without a buoy,” Kirpalani said.
“The practice of law has always been, and in my humble opinion always will be, one that depends on mentors and apprenticeship. And while some people complain that it’s a lost art in our competitive world, I don’t believe that’s true.”