Bankruptcy litigation news seems to dominate the legal media in the early days of 2009.  The Madoff case involves clawback issues, false trades, etc.  For some good background stories click here, and here and here. In the Dreier firm bankruptcy case, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheila M. Gowan has been selected as the Chapter 11 bankruptcy trustee.  Currently a [...]

From: The National Law Journal, December 16, 2008 The total federal bankruptcy filings jumped up by 30 percent for the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, with business filings climbing by 49 percent in the same period, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The annual figures released on Monday may not bode well [...]

From:  The American Lawyer, December 15, 2008 Timothy Pohl, one of three co-heads of Skadden Arps’ 100-lawyer corporate restructuring group, announced on Thursday that he will leave the firm next month to become a managing director in the restructuring group at financial services firm Lazard. Skadden Arps ranked first in the Am Law 100 with gross [...]

The Tribune Co. has filed for bankruptcy, aided by the law firm Sidley Austin. The Chicago Tribune, a newspaper owned by the company, reported the bankruptcy filing Monday afternoon. The petition was filed in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware, the Associated Press reports. For full story click here. We hope this will yield significant document [...]

From: The American Lawyer, November 11, 2008 Circuit City, among the nation’s largest retailers with more than 700 stores in the U.S., hired Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom last month in hopes of finding some way to avoid a bankruptcy filing. While Skadden helped Circuit City secure a $1.3 billion line of credit recently, [...]

From: law.com, November 3, 2008 With boom times up ahead for bankruptcy lawyers, Charles Stanziale Jr. led a five-lawyer defection to McCarter & English last week. The move gives Stanziale a larger supporting cast than he had at 220-lawyer McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter. In return, 390-lawyer McCarter gets a practice group best known for [...]

From: law.com, October 28, 2008 A top bankruptcy partner at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy is leaving that firm to join Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker. Luc A. Despins, well-known in the profession for his representation of the creditors’ committee in the Enron bankruptcy, is the latest marquee name to be poached as firms rush [...]