Bankruptcy Generally

Trivia Time: Bankruptcy Lawyers in the Senate

04/18/13

I always figured that Elizabeth Warren was the first bankruptcy lawyer to serve in the Senate.  Turns out that there's at least one other.  (I'm not counting Senators who have served as Chapter 7 trustees.) Anyone know who?  I'll post the answer in a few days. 

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Ironicality Alert

03/13/13

The FT has an interesting piece on the UK Insolvency Service's ... lack of funds.

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Bankrupt Churches

02/18/13

My colleague, Professor Pamela Foohey, has just posted a paper on SSRN about religious organizations that have filed chapter 11. While the Roman Catholic dioceses bankruptcies have grabbed a lot of attention, Foohey identifies 509 other cases filed by faith-based organizations from 2006 - 2011. The amount of work in this study is impressive.

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Apologies for Bankruptcy

02/08/13

My colleague, Jennifer Robbennolt, and I have posted a paper to SSRN exploring apologies in the bankruptcy context. Jennifer has done some of the leading studies on apologies in different legal contexts. Contrary to the instincts of many lawyers, apologies tend to produce better outcomes for defendants. For example, victims who hear an apology are less likely to feel they need to invoke legal process and are generally more amenable to settlements.

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A Change in Name and More

02/07/13

Some recent moves in the Senate Judiciary Committee should be of interest to bankruptcy specialists.  The committee has approved a new subcommittee to be called "Bankruptcy and the Courts" with Senator Chris Coons of Delaware as the subcommittee chair. The new subcommittee is essentially a name change from the old "Administrative Oversight and the Courts" subcommittee, which also had jurisdiction over bankruptcy matters.

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Assassination and Bankruptcy

12/11/12

How's that for a catchy title?

I was inspired by an interesting post over at Lawfare, where the author notes that the term "assassination" has a specialized meaning in legal circles – namely, it involves an unlawful killing – whereas in the popular imagination the term basically refers to any sort of covert killing, particularly those with national security implications.

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