Vincent Roldan of Mandelbaum Barrett is a Diverse Attorneys of the Year honoree. The below responses from Roldan were lightly edited for style. 

What are some of your proudest achievements of the past two years?

I am proud that I served on the boards of two major Asian/Pacific American (APA) bar organizations. For the past two years, I have been a board member for the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the nation’s largest APA membership organization. I was also recently elected to the board of the Asian Pacific American Lawyers Association of New Jersey, a New Jersey-based affiliate of NAPABA.

With respect to billable work, I am proud to have assisted clients through the Chapter 11 process. In the past two years, I represented three debtors in their Subchapter V cases, and obtained plan confirmation in all three. Ultimately I am also proud to have contributed to the growth of my firm Mandelbaum Barrett, especially in representing clients in some major Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases.

“Making a difference” can have many meanings. What does it mean to you?

To me, it means helping advance the careers of younger APAs, especially in the field of bankruptcy. When I was a young associate, I knew of no APA law firm partners and no APA bankruptcy attorneys. I have been practicing now for about 23 years and am committed to providing younger APAs with mentoring and resources that I either did not have, or did not know existed.