Mr. Richard J. Cooper

Richard J. Cooper is a partner with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in New York, where he focuses his practice on international and domestic restructurings both in the private and public sec- tors. He has represented debtors, sovereigns, buyers and sellers of distressed assets and securities, creditor committees, DIP lenders, and other participants in out-of-court and in-court bankruptcy proceedings. Mr. Cooper is currently leading the team advising the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico with the restructuring of approximately $73 billion of indebtedness and with the enactment of the Puerto Rico Public Corporation Debt Enforcement and Recovery Act (known as the Recovery Act) and the Puerto Rico Emergency Moratorium and Rehabilitation Act (known as the Moratorium Act or Act 21). He also played a lead role in the development and passage of the federal statute known as the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act, or "PROMESA," which creates the first federal debt-restructuring regime available to U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico. Mr. Cooper was an early advocate of PROMESA, lobbying for its passage in Washington D.C. and San Juan, and was deeply involved in the negotiation and drafting of many of its provisions. Ad- ditionally, he led the team advising the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), the largest municipal utility in the U.S., in its restructuring of over $9.5 billion of indebtedness and related matters, and the Government Development Bank of Puerto Rico in its negotiations with creditors. Mr. Cooper has also worked on the U.S. restructurings of Aleris, America West Airlines, Circle K, Color Tile, Continental Airlines, Foxwoods Casino, Insight Healthcare, Lehman Brothers, Milagro Holdings, Pan American Airways, Revco and Van Camp Seafood, among others. In Latin America, he has advised on many of the most high-profile restructuring transactions in recent years, including OGPar, Oi, GVO, OAS, Odebrecht Oil and Gas, Rioprevidencia and Tonon in Brazil; ICA, GEO, OceanografÂ?a and Oro Negro in Mexico; San Antonio Oil and Gas in Argentina; and Gildemeister and Alsacia and Express in Chile, among others. Mr. Cooper was recognized in 2014 by Law360 as an MVP in bankruptcy and restructuring and by the Financial Times in its fifth annual North America Innovative Lawyers Report for his role in representing a consortium of creditors in OGX's bankruptcy. In addition, he is internationally distinguished as one of the world's leading lawyers by Chambers Latin America, The Legal 500 Latin America, Latin Lawyer 250, Latinvex's Top 100 Lawyers, Chambers Global, Chambers USA, The Legal 500 U.S., IFLR 1000, The Best Lawyers in America and Global M&A Network. Mr. Cooper is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Fisrt Circuit Court of Appeals. He received his B.A. in 1982 from Duke University, his M.Sc. in 1983 from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and his J.D. in 1986 from Columbia Law School, where he was an international fellow with the university's School of International Affairs.