We study a competitive model in which market incompleteness implies that debt-financed firms may default in some states of nature and default may lead to the sale of the firms' assets at fire sale prices when markets are illiquid. This incompleteness is the only friction in the model and the...

In this article, using a comparative approach (Canadian versus American and automotive versus financial sectors), we build on the defense of the Chapter 11 automotive cases that one of us has already put forward elsewhere. That is, the Chrysler and GM cases did not subvert normal Chapter 11...

The first part of this paper sketches the several existing systems for resolving financial distress in financial firms, including the new resolution authority created by the Dodd-Frank bill. By my count, there are at least six systems at work here, not counting state-by-state variations. I then...

Among the collective wisdom about large corporate bankruptcy cases, the following points are almost undisputed: Longer chapter 11 cases cost more; Prepackaged chapter 11 cases cost less; Cases filed in New York or Delaware cost more; Fee examiners control the costs of big chapter 11 cases. But...

In this paper we focus on the concern that a preference for quick sales over traditional reorganization cases - which we see in both the United States and Canada - might allow the debtor's management to work with secured lenders to extract assets from the debtor in a way that would not be...

It has been observed that large chapter 11 cases have become increasingly “professionalized.” In particular, while once debtor's counsel might have handled the bulk of the reorganization, the debtor now routinely retains specialized professionals to address specific aspects of the case....

Over the last decade, the availability of credit default swaps (CDS) has dramatically transformed the markets for credit insurance by providing participants efficient avenues through which to share credit risks. These risk-sharing benefits notwithstanding, the growth of credit default swaps...

In this paper our goal is to identify the core of corporate bankruptcy law that parties cannot achieve on their own, no matter how robust their contract law. Our approach takes organizational law as starting point and we posit that bankruptcy law is a necessary addition to organizational law....

We are in the midst of the most significant financial crisis since the New Deal, yet chapter 11 is notable mostly for its absence. Chapter 11 is thing that wrecked Lehman Brothers, and perhaps the credit markets. And the thing that the Federal Reserve and Treasury worked so hard to keep AIG and...