Arthur J. Gonzalez is a senior fellow at

New York University School of Law New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in N ...

and member of the PROMESA oversight board in charge of resolving the

Puerto Rican government-debt crisis The Puerto Rican government-debt crisis was a financial crisis affecting the government of Puerto Rico. The crisis began in 2014 when three major credit agencies downgraded several bond issues by Puerto Rico to "junk status" after the governmen ...

. Before his retirement from the bench, he was chief judge of the

United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York is the United States bankruptcy court within the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Southern District of New York is a major venue for b ...

. Gonzalez received his undergraduate degree from Fordham University in 1969. Following graduation, he worked as a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

public school teacher until 1982, earning a master's degree from the Brooklyn College School of Education. After earning a law degree in the Evening Program at Fordham in 1982, Gonzalez became an attorney for the Manhattan District Counsel Office of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). He left the IRS in 1988 and worked as a private lawyer for several firms. During this period, he earned a

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...

from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

(NYU). In 1991, Gonzalez re-entered government to become an Assistant

United States Trustee The United States Trustee Program is a component of the United States Department of Justice that is responsible for overseeing the administration of bankruptcy cases and private trustees. The applicable federal law is found at and , et seq. In ...

for the Southern District of New York. He was promoted in 1993 to become trustee for New York,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

, and

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

. Judge Gonzalez was appointed bankruptcy judge in 1995.

Significant cases

Gonzalez handled the Chrysler LLC bankruptcy case until his retirement. Wall Street Journal, May 1, 2009
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/business/01judge.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=gonzalez&st=cse New York Times, April 30, 2009] Previously, Gonzalez presided over the bankruptcy proceedings for

WorldCom MCI, Inc. (subsequently Worldcom and MCI WorldCom) was a telecommunications company. For a time, it was the second largest long-distance telephone company in the United States, after AT&T. Worldcom grew largely by acquiring other telecommunic ...

, at that point the largest U.S. bankruptcy case (since overtaken by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008), and

Enron Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional compani ...

. The criminal proceedings against the corporate executives of WorldCom and Enron did not originate from the bankruptcy proceedings before Gonzalez via mandatory referral of possible crimes under Title 18 U.S.C. § 3057; in contrast the post petition corporate entities both sought releases and compensation for the benefit of their current and former senior officers.

References

External links

Official biographical profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzalez, Arthur 1940s births Living people Fordham University alumni Fordham University School of Law alumni New York University School of Law alumni United States Trustees Judges of the United States bankruptcy courts Enron scandal Brooklyn College alumni