| Defining Success in
Business Bankruptcy
Whether business bankruptcy is an effective remedy depends on
defining what types of outcomes constitute success. This book, provides
an overview of the issues and features the following papers:
- A Debtor's Perspective;
- Defining Success from the Standpoint of a Secured Creditor in
Business Bankruptcies;
- An Unsecured Creditor's View;"
- Bankruptcy in the United States: A Noble
Pursuit;
- Defining Success in Business Bankruptcies.
Should the Automatic Stay Be Abolished?
The dual purpose of providing the debtor with a "fresh start"
and equitable distribution of the debtor's property to creditors
commonly have been referred to as the twin goals or policies of the
Bankruptcy Code. At the center of these purposes is the automatic stay.
The protection of the stay has been eroded since the Bankruptcy Reform
Act of 1978 went into effect, and amendments to §362 suggest the
stay was too broad. A thorough discussion is provided in the following
papers included in this book:
- The Stay Is Here to Stay;
- A Secured Creditor's Brief for Reform of the Automatic Stay:
The Single Asset Real Estate Case;
- The Efficacy of the Automatic Stay: Does It Work in the First
Place?;
- Alternate Readings of the Legislative History of the
Automatic Stay;
- A Foreign Perspective on the Automatic Stay Debate: The
Canadian Insolvency System.
Professional Compensation: Does Bankruptcy Cost Too
Much?
Many costs are associated with bankruptcy reorganization and
liquidation cases in the United States; among the most extraordinary
tangible expenses are professionals' fees. This books discusses the
issues in general, as well varying viewpoints:
- Professional Fees: Is the Cost Too High?;
- Do Non-business Bankruptcies Cost Too Much?;
- An Accountant's Perspective;
- Paying the Piper;
- The Magnetism of Perpetual Criticism: A Practitioner's
Perspective;
- U.S. General Accounting Office Fact Sheet on Bankruptcy
Professional Fees: Guidelines for Reviewing Fee
Applications.
Administrative Oversight in the Bankruptcy System: Who
Should Guard the Hen House?
Virtually every community, business and individual in the
United States is affected in some manner by the operation of the federal
bankruptcy system. Someone, somewhere must be responsible for the
efficiency and integrity of the system. Currently, the U.S. Trustee
Program fulfills this function in 48 states and the Bankruptcy
Administrator Program is used in the remaining two states. This book
explores the question of oversight with papers including:
- The U.S. Trustee System Remains the Right Choice in the Right
Place;
- Who Should Guard the Hen House?
- Bankruptcy Administrators Make Better (and Cheaper) Hen House
Guards
- News and Comments on the U.S. Trustee Program
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Exclusivity and DIP Management: Too Much Debtor
Control?
The current business reorganization scheme generally
authorizes the directors, officers and management team that operated a
financially troubled business prior to bankruptcy to continue to manage
the debtor's affairs during chapter 11. Does this vesting of control in
the pre-existing management team promote reorganization or explain the
high failure rate in chapter 11? This books provides a complete analysis
of the issues with papers on:
- The Professional Turnaround Manager's Case for
Exclusivity;
- The Secured Creditor's Case for Abolition of the Exclusivity
Period;
- Abolishing Exclusivity: Much Ado About Nothing from an
Unsecured Creditor's Vantage Point;
- An Investment Banker's Proposal for Fundamental Changes in
the Management of Chapter 11 Cases.
Labor Unions and Bankruptcy: Too Much Leverage?
The Bankruptcy Code originally included few, if any, special
interest provisions favoring organized labor. Section 1113 and Section
1114 have been added to the Code to restrict the rejection of labor
contracts and to protect retiree benefits, respectively. This books
explores the issues with papers on:
- Collective Bargaining Agreements and Bankruptcy: Are They
Worth The Paper They're Written On?;
- A Perspective from Management;
- Municipal Bankruptcy: A Case for Legislative
Change.
How Consensual Workouts Are Shaped by Business
Bankruptcy
The chapter 11 process is often cumbersome, expensive, and
lacking in uniformity and predictability. Often, the meter specter of a
bankruptcy filing can provided businesses with leverage during
negotiations with creditors, employees and shareholders. This leverage
can shape the parameters of the any resolution and the continuing
relationship of the parties. The extent to which the Bankruptcy Code
influences out-of-court workouts should be an important consideration in
bankruptcy reform. This book includes papers on:
- "I Was Thinking Along Those Lines Anyhow" Or, How the Specter
of Bankruptcy Proceedings Caused Me to Embrace the Consensual Workout
Process;
- The Bankruptcy Code: Thor's Hammer for the
Workout;
- The Impact of Bankruptcy on Workouts and New
Investments;
- The Impact of the Bankruptcy Code on Dealing with Management
of a Troubled Company and on Initial Financial Analysis;
- The Banker's Perspective.
The Impact of Bankruptcy on Free Market
Competition
Who, if anybody, is really better off when a company files a
bankruptcy petition? The debtor? Its competitors? Its customers? The
public at large? This book examines the impact of a chapter 11 filing on
the marketplace and one debtor-in-possessions' ability to compete,
focusing specifically on the airline industry, which has had a high
number of filings. Papers include:
- The Impact of Bankruptcy on Free Market
Competition;
- The Effect of Chapter 11 on Competition in the Airline
Industry;
- The Economic Effect of Bankruptcy: The "Zombie Airline"
Debate;
- The Empirical Evidence on Zombie Airlines.
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