Bankruptcy Law

Chicago Coup Lures 8-Lawyer Group

In a hot-practice-area coup in Chicago, Bell, Boyd & Lloyd has lured eight bankruptcy lawyers, including a new practice group head, from rival Freeborn & Peters. The lateral group will help Bell, Boyd rev up its bankruptcy practice, which suffered a raid earlier this year by Baker & McKenzie, reports…

Sep 11, 2007 10:18 PM CDT

Plagiarizing Lawyer Sent to Law School

In an acerbic opinion, a federal bankruptcy judge has ordered an Iowa lawyer who submitted a largely plagiarized brief to return to law school and take a legal ethics course. In addition to presenting as his own work a 19-page brief containing 17 pages of material lifted from a scholarly…

Sep 7, 2007 8:46 PM CDT

Banks Try to Lend to Subprime Borrowers

As federal and state legislators ponder possible legislation to deal with a spate of mortgage foreclosures attributed to an explosion of risky subprime lending in recent years, some say a new issue could be developing. As the housing market stagnates, prices, in many areas throughout the U.S., are sliding, and…

Sep 4, 2007 7:02 PM CDT

Enron Claims Ruling Overturned

A federal judge in New York has overturned a ruling in Enron bankruptcy litigation that had caused consternation on Wall Street. U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that good-faith purchasers of claims against bankrupt companies should not be penalized under bankruptcy laws, the Wall Street Journal reports (sub. req.). A…

Aug 29, 2007 6:21 PM CDT

Lawyers Learn $28 Million Lesson

HomeBanc Mortgage Corp. bounced as much as $28 million in checks before filing for bankruptcy, causing headaches for Atlanta-area lawyers who went through with closings assuming the money would be there. The Georgia Real Estate Closing Attorneys Association put the figure at $28 million, while HomeBanc says it bounced 134…

Aug 23, 2007 11:36 AM CDT

Mortgage Mess Spurs Suits

Attorneys likely won’t have any trouble finding defendants to sue over the meltdown in the mortgage markets. Suits have already been filed by investors in bankrupt mortgage companies and mortgage-backed securities, by borrowers, and by lenders that provide interim financing until a mortgage is sold, the New York Law Journal…

Aug 22, 2007 12:40 PM CDT

Bankruptcy Legal Bill is $18 M

Lawyers who represented the Catholic Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., and its creditors in bankruptcy proceedings triggered in 2004 by clergy sex abuse claims have submitted their final bill. It is a little over $18 million—$18,842,506.13, to be precise, reports the Oregonian. “It’s not clear how they figured the 13 cents,”…

Aug 21, 2007 10:33 PM CDT

Relief for Lawyers in $20 M Lender Bounced-Checks Case

There is relief in sight for lawyers in Georgia and elsewhere who covered perhaps $20 million in bounced checks issued by a mortgage lender. After hearing from Edwin R. Neel, a veteran Atlanta real estate attorney who said he put up his own home to pay for HomeBanc Mortgage Corp.’s…

Aug 21, 2007 6:46 PM CDT

Lender’s Bounced Checks Create Lawyer Havoc

A mortgage company that went belly-up has left Atlanta-area lawyers digging into their own pockets to cover escrow losses. HomeBanc Mortgage Corp. may have issued as much as $20 million in bounced checks on July 30 and 31 before it filed for bankruptcy, according to the Fulton County Daily Report.…

Aug 16, 2007 12:31 PM CDT

V&E Latest Bankruptcy Convert

Vinson & Elkins is the latest law firm to add bankruptcy lawyers, acquiring a five-lawyer boutique for its New York office. The firm, Cronin & Vris, worked extensively with V&E on the bankruptcy on Enron Corp., the New York Law Journal reports. Founders of the New York boutique once worked…

Aug 13, 2007 1:06 PM CDT

Retired Delta Pilots Seek $100 M

About 1,000 retired pilots for Delta Air Lines claim the company owes them at least $100 million in pension benefits. The pilots said in a New York bankruptcy filing that the company is misinterpreting federal tax law and miscalculating benefits paid under its defined-benefit plan, according to the Fulton County…

Aug 10, 2007 11:48 AM CDT

Ruling Speeds NJ Foreclosures

A federal appeals court has cleared up a dispute in New Jersey over how long homeowners have to cure a mortgage default. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Aug. 3 that the right to cure ends when the auction gavel drops, adopting the so-called gavel rule, the New…

Aug 10, 2007 10:45 AM CDT

New Suit Targets Refco Purchaser

The legal fight over responsibility for the failure of commodities broker Refco has taken another turn, as a plaintiff now becomes a defendant. A lawsuit by a Refco trustee contends that Thomas H. Lee Partners LP became aware of problems at Refco but covered them up so it could sell…

Aug 9, 2007 6:26 PM CDT

New Bankruptcy Dept for Cravath

Signaling a sea change in the way that one of New York City’s most prestigious, upper-echelon law firms runs its practice, Richard Levin has now been working as a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore for a month. Levin not only represents a very rare exception to Cravath’s ordinary policy…

Aug 2, 2007 9:35 PM CDT

Lawyer, 47, Moves to 6th Firm in 8 Years

If this is a day in 2007, the law firm at which David Wiseblood is working must be Seyfarth Shaw. Or possibly Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Gates, where he hung his shingle earlier this year, or–before its merger with Kirkpatrick & Lockhart–Preston Gates & Ellis. Lawyers leap laterally to new firms…

Jul 25, 2007 8:20 PM CDT