Bankruptcy

Expert Analysis

• 3 Cautionary Tales For Buyers Of Bankruptcy Claims

  

  Courts have usually provided little guidance regarding problems that might affect the use of claims purchased in bankruptcy cases for strategic reasons. With three recent decisions, this dynamic has begun to change, say Nancy Peterman and John Elrod of Greenberg Traurig LLP.

• New Privacy Laws' Unintended Impact On Bankruptcy Sales

  

  When the next downturn occurs, bankruptcies and opportunities for investors to pick up distressed assets on the cheap will follow. Where those assets include customer lists or other personal information protected by new privacy laws in the EU and California, those sales will become more difficult, say Walt Sapronov and Paul Kouroupas of Sapronov & Associates PC.

• What Kavanaugh's Writing Tells Us About His Personality

  

  People with certain personality traits tend to use certain words. A computer analysis of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s D.C. Circuit opinions reveals that he is highly extraverted, which means that he would be a prominent voice on the U.S. Supreme Court, says Matthew Hall, a professor at the University of Notre Dame.

• Roundup

  Cities In Distress

  

  Five years after the city of Detroit filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, experts look at the financial troubles of Chicago and other U.S. cities in this special series.

• Opinion

  3 Pros, 3 Cons Of Litigation Finance

  

  An educated guess puts the number of new litigation funders launched in the past 18 months at 30 — an astonishing number, with more to come. Is this a blessing to our legal system or something more akin to tulip mania? Maybe both, says Ralph Sutton, founder and CEO of litigation funding firm Validity Finance LLC.

• Series

  Cities In Distress: Municipal Recovery Lessons From Pa.

  

  As we reflect on the five years since Detroit’s bankruptcy filing, Pennsylvania’s experience in intervening in its municipalities’ financial distress provides some useful insights on the problems plaguing municipalities as well as lessons for states, says professor Juliet Moringiello of Widener University Commonwealth Law School.

• Modern Communication Brings E-Discovery Challenges

  

  As new communications platforms displace email, the legal industry is awkwardly grappling with complex e-discovery questions. Fortunately, this environment provides a very fertile ground of incentives for innovation in both e-discovery technology and service offerings, says Thomas Bonk of Epiq.

• Series

  Cities In Distress: Michigan's Emergency Mgr. Law And Flint

  

  Michigan has taken a very aggressive approach to addressing municipal fiscal insolvency. But the state's emergency manager law fails to consider the unintended consequences of short-term financial adjustments, as seen in the case of Flint, say Eric Scorsone and Samantha Zinnes of Michigan State University.

• Opinion

  It's Not All About The Benjamins, Baby (Lawyer)

  

  Notwithstanding the latest salary war among prominent law firms, I urge my middle-aged and older colleagues to help the recent graduates we know focus on the long term. Even if the salary is the same, there is a big difference between an institutional firm and the relatively younger firms matching BigLaw, says J.B. Heaton, a University of Chicago business law fellow and former partner at Bartlit Beck.

• Asbestos Transparency Laws Can Stop Double Recovery

  

  Some asbestos plaintiffs have obtained full recovery from viable defendants and simultaneously, or later, recovered more money for the same injury from asbestos bankruptcy trusts established by those same entities. Recognizing this problem, more and more states are turning to asbestos transparency laws as a solution, say Scott Hunsaker and Karl Borgsmiller of Tucker Ellis LLP.