Corporate Bankruptcy

CHAPTER 1

Introduction and Overview

Bankruptcy is about relationships. We are not referring here to personal relationships, of course, although sometimes the personal relationships may intrude on bankruptcy proceedings—and in mostly unpleasant ways, it might be added. (Few better examples of this phenomenon exist than the experience of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ recent bankruptcy, which was intertwined with the bitter divorce proceedings of the club’s owners). Rather, bankruptcy is the story of the relationship of a debtor with its various creditors, and of the relationships between and among the creditors themselves. These relationships typically arise within a complex array of contract and practice, clarity and confusion, familiarity and ...