6 x 9. 336 pgs. 4 charts, 13 tables. (2005) Paper 978-0-472-03170-2 $25.95S  Available Add to Cart Search this Book's Content About the Book Praise Look Inside Subjects Law

Courting Failure
How Competition for Big Cases Is Corrupting the Bankruptcy Courts

Lynn M. LoPucki



An eye-opening account of the widespread and systematic decay of America's bankruptcy courts

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About the Book

A sobering chronicle of our broken bankruptcy-court system, Courting Failure exposes yet another American institution corrupted by greed, avarice, and the thirst for power.

Lynn LoPucki's eye-opening account of the widespread and systematic decay of America's bankruptcy courts is a blockbuster story that has yet to be reported in the media. LoPucki reveals the profound corruption in the U.S. bankruptcy system and how this breakdown has directly led to the major corporate failures of the last decade, including Enron, MCI, WorldCom, and Global Crossing.

LoPucki, one of the nation's leading experts on bankruptcy law, offers a clear and compelling picture of the destructive power of "forum shopping," in which attorneys choose courts that offer the most favorable outcome for their bankrupt clients. The courts, lured by power and prestige, streamline their requirements and lower their standards to compete for these lucrative cases. The result has been a series of increasingly shoddy reorganizations of major American corporations, proposed by greedy corporate executives and authorized by case-hungry judges.

Lynn LoPucki is the Security Pacific Bank Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a leading expert on U.S. bankruptcy law.