Claire’s bankruptcy counsel — Joshua Sussberg of Kirkland & Ellis — made good on his pledge to get his ear pierced if Claire’s found a going-concern buyer.

As promised, following approval of the debtors’ proposed sale to AWS Claire’s, and under the watchful eye of Delaware Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Shannon, Sussberg got his ear pierced by a Claire’s employee in the courtroom.

“When I made my commitment on the record, it was a very slim chance that we were going to be able to be where we are today,” Sussberg admitted, adding, “I am a man of my word.”

UCC counsel, Seth Van Aalten of Cole Schotz, noted that he and Sussberg had worked on more than two dozen retail cases over the last twenty years and they had had “some dogs,” and joked that it might have helped if Sussberg had “committed to bleed for them.”

Observing that Sussberg was wearing a “crisp white shirt,” Judge Shannon seemed particularly interested to see if Sussberg was a “crier.” However from the pictures provided by Sussberg it appears the piercing was drama-free.

Of course the proposed sale still has to close before the debtors can really celebrate. To that point, in reference to the debtors’ successful eleventh hour negotiation to remove the purchaser’s “walk right,” Sussberg joked that the removal was important because “there was no world in which” he would “go through this” to have the sale not go through. “So, this is going to close,” he said.

The docket can be found on the 9fin platform.

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