This essay discusses why the increase in high-profile, high-fees chapter 11 bankruptcy cases creates some real public relations problems for bankruptcy professionals and what those professionals might do to avert a backlash in the media and in the public opinion of lawyers

The Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation creates an “Orderly Liquidation Authority” (OLA) that shares many features in common with the Bankruptcy Code. This is easy to overlook because the legislation uses a language and employs a decision-maker (both borrowed from bank regulation) that...

This article discusses the issues facing the lawyer for the estate in a bankruptcy case. It debunks the idea that the lawyer for the estate represents any single constituency, and it tries to redefine the fiduciary duties that the estate lawyer has to the bankruptcy estate

Exploiting a setting in which lead counsel lawyers are selected before the random assignment of bankruptcy judges, we examine if past interactions between lead counsel lawyers and judges influence corporate bankruptcy outcomes. Debtors' counsel who are familiar with the judge speed up the...

Courts must audit and then screen out viable but failing firms after their filing for bankruptcy. Yet the judgment and its decision process remain a black box. The bankruptcy literature claims it is an optimal arbitrage between the going concern and the liquidation value. Deviations from the...

Although federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction over bankruptcy cases, once a petition is filed the matter is referred to the Bankruptcy Court, an Article One court of limited jurisdiction and limited judicial independence. Among proceedings the Bankruptcy court can adjudicate are core...