Law Commons^™

Employee Interests In Bankrupcy: Lessons From Enron, Lorie Johnson

Popular Media

Enron employees lost over $1 billion in retirement savings when the company failed and filed for bankruptcy protection. Many of these employees also lost their jobs. Enron employees were both visible and vocal about their losses, quickly obtaining the support of both the AFL-CIO and Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/Push Coalition in their fight to get some redress for their losses. Since Enron was current on its payroll at the time of the bankruptcy filing, employees’ losses consisted of severance payments totaling $145 million and the losses associated with investments in Enron stock through their 401(k) accounts.

Introduction To The Symposium "Convergence On Delaware: Corporate Bankruptcy And Corporate Governance", Robert K. Rasmussen, Charles M. Elson

Vanderbilt Law Review

Bankruptcy is back. The use of Chapter 11 by large, publicly held firms was a subject of much debate in the academic and popular press in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. Firms such as Texaco, Revco, LTV, Federated Department Stores, Maxwell Communications, TWA, and Eastern Airlines all filed for bankruptcy during that time. The economic boom of the mid- and late 1990s, however, resulted in a relative dearth of high-profile bankruptcy cases. The recent economic downturn has moved corporate reorganizations back into the spotlight. The Chapter 11 filings by firms such as Enron, Global Crossing, the Loewen Group, …

The Law Of Last Resort, Barry E. Adler

Vanderbilt Law Review

A financially distressed individual or corporation employs the bankruptcy process only as a last resort. The study of bankruptcy law, however, need not, and should not, be an afterthought. The traditional bodies of law that compose private ordering are the laws of property, contract, and tort. Property law establishes private entitlements that can be specifically enforced against the world. Contract law permits individuals to exchange obligations and thus invest one another with entitlements. Tort law creates its own set of entitlements and imposes liability for unwanted interference with those or other entitlements. These bodies of law are often presented as …

Corporate Governance Reform And Reemergence From Bankruptcy: Putting The Structure Back In Restructuring, Charles M. Elson, Paul M. Helms, James R. Moncus

Vanderbilt Law Review

A company's descent into bankruptcy may result from one or more troubling factors. Often the failing enterprise has adopted a poor business model, been led by deficient management, or labored under an unworkable capital structure. More often than not, a business failure is also accompanied by a less-than-ideal corporate governance structure within the organization. The failure to adopt an effective corporate governance model often leads to a sterile, inactive board of directors and may hasten a firm's demise. Conversely, proper corporate governance may prevent a business's slide into Chapter 11. Indeed, several studies have demonstrated a strong relationship between corporate …

Why Are Delaware And New York Bankruptcy Reorganizations Failing?, Lynn M. Lopucki, Joseph W. Doherty

Vanderbilt Law Review

Before 1990, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware was a sleepy backwater. During the entire decade of the 1980s, Phoenix Steel-whose only plant was located in Delaware-was the only large, public company to file there. In 1990, two large, public companies-Continental Airlines and United Merchants and Manufacturers-filed in Delaware. They constituted 7% of the twenty-nine large, public companies filing in the United States that year. From 1990 to 1996, Delaware's market share steadily increased to 87% (thirteen of fifteen cases).' In just seven years, Delaware had become the bankruptcy reorganization capital of the United States.

Lynn …

"Delaware Is Not A State": Are We Witnessing Jurisdictional Competition In Bankruptcy?, Marcus Cole

Vanderbilt Law Review

Over the last twelve years, the United States District Court for the District of Delaware has experienced exponential growth in the number of bankruptcy filings for large corporate debtors. This relatively recent rise in Delaware bankruptcy venue cannot, on its face, be explained by Delaware's eighty-five-year preeminence in the race for corporate charters, since the advantages most often postulated for Delaware's dominance in corporate law do not carry over to corporate bankruptcy. The state has limited influence over federal bankruptcy law and virtually no control over the selection of federal bankruptcy judges. This rise of Delaware bankruptcy venue, or Delawarization …

Chapter 11 Reorganization Cases And The Delaware Myth, Harvey R. Miller

Vanderbilt Law Review

Since the mid-1990s, there has been a spirited debate concerning the emergence of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the "Delaware Bankruptcy Court") as the virtual Chapter 11 capital for distressed debtor corporations. The "Delawarization" of corporate reorganizations under title 11 of the United States Code (the "Bankruptcy Code"), which occurred during the 1990s as a result of the migration of Chapter 11 cases of large enterprises from other venues to Delaware, has provoked a stream of academic articles debating the consequences of Delaware's emergence. Armed with statistics purporting to demonstrate a high rate of recidivism …

Secured Credit And Insolvency Law In Argentina And The U.S.: Gaining Insight From A Comparative Perspective, Guillermo A. Moglia Claps, Julian B. Mcdonnell

Scholarly Works

It is not the purpose of this study to argue for or against changes in the secured credit or insolvency law of Argentina or the U.S. The perpetual clash of interested noted by James Madison and the contemporary pressures of the global economy are likely to assure that these areas of law will be subject to continuing scrutiny in both countries. Instead, we first urge that the law governing the creation and enforcement of security devices and the way in which insolvency laws impact these devices be considered together as part of one system of financing. The power which secured …

Sovereign Impunity: The "Uniform Laws" Theory Tries (And Fails) To Take A Bankruptcy-Sized Bited Out Of The Eleventh Amendment, Cecily Fuhr

Washington Law Review

Sovereign immunity represents the principle that a state cannot be subjected to suit without its consent. In bankruptcy proceedings, it is sometimes necessary for a debtor to file an adversary proceeding against a creditor to determine the dischargeability of a debt. When the creditor is a state, the exercise of sovereign immunity by that state can pose an obstacle to the total discharge of debts contemplated by the bankruptcy system. Courts have found unconstitutional recent attempts by Congress to abrogate states' sovereignty in § 106(a) of the Bankruptcy Code. In response, some courts have adopted a "uniform laws" theory. This …

Reorganizations And Stochastic Collateral Value, Royce De R. Barondes

Faculty Publications

Bebchuk and Fried propose using a series of auctions to implement a market-based methodology for valuing secured claims in a reorganization. This Article demonstrates their procedure can result in a secured creditor receiving more than its ex ante bargain, and that the probability distribution of possible collateral values can be relevant to fulfilling the ex ante bargain. This Article further develops and examines a refinement of the Bebchuk and Fried procedure that provides an approximate solution to the overcompensation of secured creditors. This refinement reconceptualizes collateral as comprising two components: (i) a call option on that property, exercisable at the …

Confusion And Solution: Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Trustee's Standard Of Care For Personal Liability, David P. Primack

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Bankruptcy Upon A Firm Using Patents And Trademarks As Collateral, Lois R. Lupica

Faculty Publications

The Bankruptcy Code sets forth an orderly process for the distribution of a debtor-in-bankruptcy's assets. This process has the effect of altering many of the procedural and substantive rights and obligations of the debtor, as well as of the debtor's creditors. Parties asserting a property interest in assets of a debtor in bankruptcy, however, must rely on nonbankruptcy law to determine the nature and extent of their property interests. The most commonly asserted interest by creditors involved in a bankruptcy are security interests.

Bankruptcy Electronic Case Filing Workshop, Office Of Continuing Legal Education At The University Of Kentucky College Of Law

Continuing Legal Education Materials

Materials from the Bankruptcy Electronic Case Filing Workshop (C.M./E.C.F.: Case Management/Electronic Case Filing) held by UK/CLE in 2002.

Small Business Reorganization And The Sabre Proposals, Karen Gebbia

Publications

Many bankruptcy experts suspect that the substantial costs and hurdles of reorganizing under chapter 11 are especially burdensome for small businesses and may significantly impair small businesses' ability to reorganize and survive. It should not be surprising, then, that bankruptcy practitioners, scholars, and judges agonize over the treatment of small businesses in reorganization; conferences are organized to consider the particular problems of financially distressed small businesses; Congress singled out small businesses for attention in the 1994 Bankruptcy Code amendments; and the National Bankruptcy Review Commission recommended reforms applicable to small business reorganization cases.

Much of the debate concerning the treatment …

Why Warn? – The Worker Adjustment And Retraining Notification Act In Bankruptcy, Laura B. Bartell

Law Faculty Research Publications

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification ("WARN") Ace was enacted by Congress in 1988 to provide limited protections to workers whose jobs are suddenly and permanently terminated. The WARN Act generally precludes an "employer" from ordering a "plant closing or mass layoff" until the expiration of a sixty-day period after giving written notice of such proposed action. Pursuant to legislative directive, the Department of Labor ("Department") promulgated a final rule in 1989 interpreting the provisions of the statutory language. Although neither the WARN Act itself nor the final rule makes any reference to bankrupt employers, in the preamble to the …

Teoría General De La Prueba Judicial, Edward Ivan Cueva

Edward Ivan Cueva

No abstract provided.

Enron Bankruptcy Rouses Debate Over National Energy Deregulation, Patrick Bryan

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Can't Pay Your Debts, Mate? A Comparison Of The Australian And American Personal Bankruptcy Systems, 18 Bankr. Dev. J. 297 (2002), Paul B. Lewis

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Corporate Ownership Structure And The Evolution Of Bankruptcy Law: Lessons From The United Kingdom, John Armour, Brian R. Cheffins, David A. Skeel Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Historical Development Of American Indian Tribes; Their Recent Dramatic Commercial Advancement; And A Discussion Of The Eligibility Of Indian Tribes Under The Bankruptcy Code And Related Matters, R. Spencer Clift Iii

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Limiting Liability Through Bankruptcy, G. Marcus Cole

Journal Articles

The purpose of this Article is to expose that function of bankruptcy law that distinguished it from English and Colonial insolvency law, and to determine the scope of and need for bankruptcy law to perform that function in contemporary society. I posit that the distinguishing character of bankruptcy law was, and continues to be, its ability to serve as a temporal asset partitioning device. By asset partition, I mean the ability of a structure to sequester the assets of an owner of an enterprise from the reach of the creditors of that enterprise, or the assets of the enterprise from …

Delaware Is Not A State: Are We Witnessing Jurisdictional Competition In Bankruptcy, G. Marcus Cole

Journal Articles

Over the last twelve years, the United States District Court for the District of Delaware has experienced exponential growth in the number of bankruptcy filings for large corporate debtors. This relatively recent rise in Delaware bankruptcy venue cannot, on its face, be explained by Delaware's eighty-five-year preeminence in the race for corporate charters, since the advantages most often postulated for Delaware's dominance in corporate law do not carry over to corporate bankruptcy. The state has limited influence over federal bankruptcy law and virtually no control over the selection of federal bankruptcy judges.

This rise of Delaware bankruptcy venue, or Delawarization …

Optimal Bankruptcy In A Non-Optimal World, Richard M. Hynes

Faculty Publications

Consumer bankruptcy insures individuals against misfortune. Like other forms of insurance, bankruptcy reduces an individual's incentive to guard against misfortune and provides her with an incentive to overstate her need for relief. The "first-best," or optimal, bankruptcy system, like the first-best tax or public assistance system, solves these moral hazards without any loss of efficiency. In bankruptcy, this first-best approach would deny relief to debtors responsible for their own distress and reduce the deserving debtors' obligations to an amount commensurate with their ability to pay. While the Bankruptcy Code tries (in part) to follow this first-best approach, such a utopian …

"Retail Choice" Is Coming: Have You Hugged Your Utilities Lawyer Today? (Part I), Nancy B. Rapoport, Jeffrey D. Van Niel

Scholarly Works

This part of the article provides a primer on the history of utilities regulation. (Part II provides a discussion on the intersection of utilities law and bankruptcy law, pre-BAPCPA.)

Multidisciplinary Practice After In Re Enron: Should The Debate On Mdp Change At All?, Nancy B. Rapoport

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

"Retail Choice" Is Coming: Have You Hugged Your Utilities Lawyer Today? (Part Ii), Nancy B. Rapoport, Jeffrey D. Van Niel

Scholarly Works

This part of the article provides a discussion on the intersection of utilities law and bankruptcy law, pre-BAPCPA. (Part I provides a primer on the history of utilities regulation.)

Revised Article 9, The Proposed Bankruptcy Code Amendments And Securitizing Debtors And Their Creditors, Lois R. Lupica

Faculty Publications

The new provisions in Revised Article 9 both reflects the drafters’ decision to enhance secured creditors’ rights, but also includes myriad provisions designed to facilitate securitization transactions. Because bankruptcy law looks to state law (specifically Article 9) to determine the rights of creditors and transferees with respect to personal property, changes to Article 9 are in effect, changes to bankruptcy law. The question raised by the changes to Article 9 is whether these changes are consistent with our historical understanding of bankruptcy policy.

Enron And The Dark Side Of Shareholder Value, William W. Bratton

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

After Orange County: Reforming California Municipal Bankruptcy Law, Frederick Tung

Faculty Scholarship

Because of federal constitutional concerns, a municipal entity may resort to federal bankruptcy protection only with the authorization of its state. Federal law requires that a municipality be "specifically authorized" under state law to file for bankruptcy protection. Existing California law provides fairly broad authorization for its municipalities, but the statute is in need of both technical and substantive revision. After discussing constitutional concerns and surveying other states' approaches to municipal bankruptcy authorization, Professor Tung recommends a system of discretionary access, in which the governor holds discretionary power to approve, disapprove, or condition a municipality's access to bankruptcy.

Venture Capital On The Downside: Preferred Stock And Corporate Control, William W. Bratton

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.