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Bankruptcy: A Feast for Lawyers Bankruptcy: A Feast for Lawyers
By Sol Stein
1999/04 - Beard Books
1893122123 - Paperback - Reprint -  357 pp.
US$34.95

The Chapter 11 experience shows that it aids the bankruptcy bar and rarely the debtor company and its creditors.

Publisher Comments

Category: Bankruptcy & Restructuring

This title is part of the Bankruptcy Primer list.

Of Interest:

As We Forgive Our Debtors: Bankruptcy and Consumer Credit in America

Bankruptcy Crimes: Third Edition

Bankruptcy in United States History

Corporate Turnaround: How Managers Turn Losers Into Winners!

Debtors and Creditors in America: Insolvency, Imprisonment for Debt, and Bankruptcy, 1607-1900

Ten Cents on the Dollar: Or the Bankruptcy Game

The PRC Enterprise Bankruptcy Law: The People's Work in Progress

The Turnaround Manager's Handbook

Described by the Chicago Tribune as a "latter-day version of Dickens' Bleak House, " Bankruptcy: A Feast for Lawyers is a shattering indictment of bankruptcy law by a CEO who lived through the experience of Chapter 11. Author Sol Stein exposes a system that is supposed to provide an opportunity for troubled companies to reorganize, but kills more than 70% of the businesses that take refuge in it while enriching legions of lawyers. In the nightmare world of Chapter 11, the gainers are seldom the creditors or the debtor company, but rather the bankruptcy bar, impeached in this book by their own conduct and the condemnation of their ethical brethren. Besides his own experience, the author draws examples from diverse industries -- trucking, food, real estate, oil, and publishing.


From Turnarounds and Workouts

"A Latter-Day Version of Dickens' Bleak House" That's how the Chicago Tribune described this book. It's a shattering indictment of bankruptcy law by a CEO who lived through the experience of Chapter 11. The author exposes a system that is supposed to provide an opportunity for troubled companies to reorganize, but actually kills more than 70% of the businesses that take refuge in it, while enriching legions of lawyers.

In the nightmare world of Chapter 11, the gainers are seldom the creditors or the debtor company, but rather the bankruptcy bar, impeached in this book by their own conduct and the condemnation of their ethical brethern. Besides his own experience, the author draws examples from diverse industries -- trucking, food, real estate, oil, and publishing.

The New York Times said, "He has produced an appalling, Dickensian portrait of the entire system... A Feast For Lawyers ought to be read not only by executives facing Chapter 11, but by all entrepreneurs, and indeed by anyone who fantasizes about running his own company."

The Wall Street Journal: "Memorably vivid, and full of useful tidbits for business readers."

The Honorable Conrad B. Duberstein, Chief Judge, Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of New York: "I enjoyed the book immensely. I recommend it to all lawyers who come into our courts and to my colleagues on the bankruptcy bench." 

Author Sol Stein has written five successful novels about law, has been an advisor on business management to several leading U.S. companies, and is founding CEO of two profitable companies. 

 

Sol Stein is the author of nine novels, which have made bestseller lists as far away as Moscow. He is also an anthologized poet, the author of nonfiction books, screenplays, and TV dramas, and the creator of the award-winning computer software WritePro, as well as FirstAid for Writers and FictionMaster. Stein has lectured on creative writing at Columbia, Iowa, UCLA, and the University of California at Irvine, which presented him with the Distinguished Instructor Award in 1993. His on-line columns appear on America Online, the Writers Club on the World Wide Web, and elsewhere on the Internet.

For 36 years Sol Stein edited and published some of the most successful writers of the century, including James Baldwin, David Frost, Jack Higgins, Elia Kazan, Dylan Thomas, Lionel Trilling, W. H. Auden, Jacques Barzun, and three heads of state. He is himself a prize-winning playwright produced on Broadway, an anthologized poet, the author of nine novels, plus nonfiction books, screenplays, and TV dramas.

Stein's novels have been translated into French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Dutch, Greek, Japanese, and Russian (one of his novels made the bestseller list in Moscow). His novel The Magician sold over one million copies. The New York Times said, "If you bury yourself in a Sol Stein book while walking, you'll walk into a wall."

His nonfiction includes the highly-acclaimed A Feast for Lawyers and the recently-published Stein on Writing, now in its third printing, which Barnes & Noble said was "the number-one practical choice for fiction and nonfiction writers of all experience levels."

Stein's play "Napoleon" won the Dramatists Alliance Prize for "the best full-length play of 1953" and was performed both in New York and California. "A Shadow of My Enemy" was performed at the National Theater in Washington and subsequently in the ANTA Theater on Broadway. With Tennessee Williams, William Inge, and Robert Anderson, he was a founding member of the Playwrights Group at the Actors Studio.

Stein founded the book publishing firm of Stein and Day, and served as its President and Editor-in-Chief for over a quarter of a century. In 1985, the "Writers' Yearbook" rated Stein and Day #3 of the top 50 U.S. publishing firms based on benefits to authors. Elia Kazan, winner of five Pulitzer prizes and two Academy Awards, in his autobiography said, "My publisher Sol Stein was my producer, my editor Sol Stein was my director." Kazan's The Understudy is dedicated to Stein, "who saw what I didn't think possible." Stein had books on bestseller lists for nineteen consecutive years.

Stein has lectured on creative writing at Columbia University, the University of Iowa, UCLA, and the University of California at Irvine, which presented him with the Distinguished Instructor Award in 1993. His computer programs, like some of his books, have been selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club and the Literary Guild and eight other book clubs.

Stein has been interviewed on the Today Show, the Tonight Show, the Larry King Show, the David Frost Program, and the major interview shows in Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Hartford, Boston, New York, Paris, and London. Further information about Stein may be found in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, and Who's Who in Entertainment.

An Open Letter to the Congress of the United States  ix
Foreword  xiii
I. Ten Lies About Chapter 11  1
II. Is This Trip Necessary?  41
III. Presumed Guilty: The Six-Ring Circus During Those Crucial First Few Days  57
IV. The Burden of Proof Is on You  73
V. Personal Assets: Hard, Harder, Hardest  89
VI. The Economic Insanity of Chapter 11  93
VII. Suddenly You Are in the Camel-Making Business  109
VIII. "Unconscionable and Obscene": The Process by which Some Bankruptcy Lawyers Enrich Themselves  123
IX. How Do You Tie Shoelaces?  133
X. The Courthouse: A Home Away from Home 143
XI. Freedom from the Press, or Please Leave the First Amendment at the Door  151
XII. The Culture of Chapter 11  161
XIII. Claims: The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing  171
XIV. What's a Nice Fellow like You Doing in a Place Like This?  177
XV. Biting the Bullet  209
XVI. The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, 1989  233
XVII. Dear Scarsdale National, or How Come They Sue You Personally for Money You Didn't Get?  253
XVIII. What Your Lawyer May (or May Not) Tell You About Lender Liability  263
XIX. Innocent Bystanders  271
XX. Some of My Best Friends Are Lawyers  279
XXI. Turnarounds: How to Avoid Chapter 11 if It's Humanly Possible  291
XXII. Sanctuary or Pillory?  303
Appendixes  319
Index 333

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