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INSIDE ARCHIVE


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UW-Green Bay, CL 815
2420 Nicolet Drive
Green Bay, WI 54311-7001
(920) 465-2214

E-mail: matzken@uwgb.edu

Rev. May 13, 2008

 

LA law and Green Bay proud

Richard Brunette '74
Commercial law, business bankruptcy specialist
Los Angeles
Hometown: Green Bay
UW-Green Bay Major: History, summa cum laude
Law School: Duke University '78

He’s a partner in the Finance and Bankruptcy Practice Group in the Los Angeles office of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP. He specializes in commercial law and bankruptcy, representing creditors, trustees and creditors committees. He shares his expertise in lectures to the American Bankruptcy Institute and the International Insolvency Institute and through service to various American Bar Association initiatives.
      The Cliff Notes version of all that? Richard Brunette is a prominent attorney with one of the West Coast’s most prestigious firms and he’s finding himself, 30 years into his legal career, more in demand than ever.
      “These are busy times,” he explains, “for attorneys who can deal in the financial restructuring of the complicated deals done over the past several years.”
      Brunette joined Sheppard Mullin straight out of law school when the firm had 75 attorneys in Los Angeles and Newport Beach. With his involvement — in the late 1990s he served a term as managing partner (basically, the CEO) — the firm has grown to more than 500 attorneys in 11 locations, Shanghai and Silicon Valley the latest.
      Given the fact his phone is ringing steadily, Brunette says he could only shake his head earlier this spring as economists tiptoed around the word “recession.”
      “This economy has brought bad news for many, many people,” he says. “If there’s a positive, in my position, it’s that we’re doing something constructive in helping restructure distressed companies to find solutions that try to maintain jobs and keep the assets productive. There can be good in that.”
      Campus memories: “The quality of the classroom teaching… I had terrific professors in history, political science and psychology. Prof. Jerrold Rodesch was one of the best teachers I ever had. Later on, at Duke Law School, I remember thinking the UWGB professors were every bit as good.”
      Old Shorewood Club: “A movie, frozen pizza and pitcher of beer for $3. None of us had any money back then. Usually it was a 1950s European film, Ingmar Bergman, something you wouldn’t see at the old Bay Theatre. My wife, Jane (a ’73 grad in history), and I were regulars. For $3, that was living large.”
      Indoor work: “My office has a classic California view. I’m looking at the Hollywood sign and Dodger Stadium. My ‘tan’? I have two skin tones: pale white and sunburn orange… I live 20 miles from the beach and haven’t been there in 25 years. My work is indoors.”


Click here to download a PDF file of the entire May 2008 issue of Inside magazine.