Bankruptcy law provides a multitude of options for the aspiring bankruptcy ace. First, there's the basic choice between corporate and consumer bankruptcies. Then the decision to specialize, or at least slant, your practice towards a particular aspect. Within each of these categories lies further sub¬groups, based on the nature of the client, the type of work performed, the size of the firm, and so on.
There is room within the bankruptcy world for both the full-service boutique practitioner, representing all clients in all proceedings, and for the Chapter 11 tax specialist or the solo proprietor of a thriving consumer practice.
This section discusses many (though by no means all) of the available options for a satisfying bankruptcy practice.
Choosing (or not choosing) a specialty
If you've been reading this guide carefully - and we trust you have been -you'll have picked up on the running theme of the generalist nature of the bankruptcy practice. For many bankruptcy attorneys, the most unique and exciting aspect of the practice is that it allows them to be "renaissance men," practicing all sorts of law - litigation, transactional, and more.
Other practitioners, however, choose one area of bankruptcy to make their own. The biggest split is between litigation and "corporate," or transactional, work. Many bankruptcy attorneys focus on litigation, primarily litigating avoidance actions or creditor claims and otherwise handling the courtroom duties. Many of these litigators started out with general commercial practices but found that bankruptcy litigation offered a more collcgial and civil practice. Others focus on the transactional aspects of bankruptcy, such as the acquisitions or financing, and predominantly represent parties requiring such expertise, including secured lenders or debtors.
Still others claim a "niche within a niche," as Mark Wallace of Stutman, Treister & Glatt describes his bankruptcy tax practice, in which he helps reorganizing debtors structure and minimize their post-bankruptcy tax obligations, negotiates tax claims in bankruptcy, and otherwise counsels debtors on tax-related aspects of their cases. Self-described "super-specialists" like Wallace create a bankruptcy specialty within another specialty, such as tax or environmental law.
Such refined specialization is most notable at bankruptcy boutiques where the volume of bankruptcy cases keeps "sub-niche" specialists busy. Wallace finds that his unique specialty "rewards you in thoroughly understanding a narrow portion of the law." In addition, it increases your marketability - you have both a unique practice with little competition, and two areas (in Wallace's case, banknjptcy and tax) in which you can claim knowledge and expertise.
Making bankruptcy just one ingredient
Many specialists play the hokey-pokey and keep one foot in bankruptcy, the other foot out. An M&A specialist, for instance, might spend half his time representing debtors and purchasers in bankruptcy asset sales and the other half working on non-bankmptcy mergers and acquisitions. This is particularly common at large law firms, where the core bankruptcy attorneys will bring in non-bankruptcy colleagues to do their specialist thing in bankruptcy proceedings. Commercial financing and UCC specialists, for example, might be on call for both bankruptcy and non-bankruptcy secured transactions. The advantage of this yin-yang practice is its versatility; you can focus more on bankruptcy when the economy is down and bankruptcies up, then slide back to non-bankruptcy transactions when the economy switches gears.
Big firms vs. small firms vs. going it alone
For most bankruptcy practitioners, the next big question is the type of firm in which to practice. Would you prefer the comfort, pay and sophistication of a large firm? Or the camaraderie and focus of a smaller firm? Or, for the brave, the autonomy and independence of a solo or two-person practice? Each has its benefits and drawbacks, but keep in mind that every firm, large or small, has its own personality.
Large firms
Often, the legal profession seems to revolve around the large firms. They are the ones that make headlines representing the sexiest clients in the sexiest matters; they are the ones that offer fat salaries, allowing you to pay off your law school debt in a mere five or six years; and they arc the ones with which your law school career office is most preoccupied.
But is a big firm for you?
Beyond all the perks, the big paychecks and bonuses and Lincoln Town Cars depositing you home at night, large law firms also provide other benefits: rotation through many areas of law, exposure to cutting-edge legal issues, top-notch continuing legal education programs, pro bono opportunities galore and a band of gold through your resume.
But not all is roses and caviar in big firm land. It has drawbacks, as you've likely heard. Remember the free ride home in a Lincoln Town Car? That's more of a safety feature than a lavish perk. Large law firms demand a lot of their associates, with evening and weekend work and flexibility (i.e. the ability to delay a dinner or vacation) expected by many clients and partners. There is often greater pressure and anxiety at a large firm, and sometimes less camaraderie given the high associate turnover. Shyer associates run the risk of getting lost in the shuffle, as more confident and poised associates often snag all the attention and the best assignments.
Law firms can be rough places; each is different, however, and many attorneys find a warm community at their own firm. This is particularly true once you find your niche. Being a member of a smaller department can feel like working at a boutique firm within a firm, providing both the benefits and resources of a large firm and the cozy environment of a smaller firm. As a first-year rotating through departments, you might feel lost; finding a niche can be like finding a professional home.
Even among attorneys who eventually find satisfaction at smaller law firms, there is often a sense that at least one tour of duty at a large firm should be mandatory for new practitioners. Large firms usually offer larger and more complex cases, superior continuing legal education programs, and exposure to and training in areas of law beyond bankruptcy.
For some attorneys, a large firm is a great training ground, a post-graduate education that also pumps up your resume and your wallet. For others, a large firm can become their professional home, giving them an exciting, cutting-edge and lucrative practice unavailable anywhere else.
Smaller firms, including bankruptcy boutiques
Smaller firms, including most firms identified as "bankruptcy boutiques" -firms specializing in bankruptcy and other restructuring and insolvency issues - offer a different experience than their larger compadres. Think of it like a small liberal arts college versus a massive university. While the latter might be appealing in its nevcrending choice of classes, clubs and foreign study programs, everybody knows your name at a small college. For many attorneys, the intimate atmosphere, relative absence of bureaucracy and higher quality of life (i.e., lower billable hours expectations) make smaller firms happier places to practice law.
Your wallet feels the biggest trade-off from working at a smaller firm; salaries rarely match those at large firms. In addition, smaller firms typically handle smaller, less sophisticated cases, and have fewer resources supporting their lawyers; compared to large firms with a full legal library, 24-hour word processing departments and a cafeteria offering four dinner entrees every night, most small firms are more reliant on Internet legal databases, offer a word processing department of two that closes at 8:00 p.m. and have, at best, a kitchen with two vending machines.
For many, however, this is a small price to pay for a collcgial atmosphere. Many associates enter large firms expecting to stay for two years at most. More often, they enter smaller firms hoping to stay for life. Although small firm lawyers work hard, on average they have less billable hour pressure and receive more respect for their out-of-office lives.
Some bankruptcy attorneys at large firms feel like they are in competition with other departments and do not receive sufficient respect from their colleagues, especially during flush times when, say, the securities department is top of the heap. By contrast, at a bankruptcy boutique, bankruptcy is king. These firms are often very well-connected to their cities' bankruptcy scenes, filled with former bankruptcy judge clerks and Chapter 7 trustees. For the associate who has decided to devote his career to bankruptcy, a bankruptcy boutique might be the right destination.
Sole practitioners and small firms
Then there are the brave entrepreneurs of the profession - the lone practitioners flying solo or with one or two partners, shingles proudly waving amid their increasingly growing and consolidating neighbors. Brian Behar started his own firm (Behar, Gutt & Glazer, P.A., based in Aventura, Florida) with two partners a decade ago. He enjoys the independence and satisfaction of building up his own successful business, and appreciates that he only has to "answer to himself and his partners," without the massive bureaucracy of a large firm. "Every morning, I see the couches and the computers at my office, and think, 'I built this,"' he adds, pointing out the most satisfying fruits of his labor and initiative.
But more so than other attorneys, practitioners with their own firms must be "both lawyers and businessmen," as Behar puts it. He counsels against hanging out your shingle right after law school. Instead, Behar recommends starting out at a law firm where you can learn how to be a lawyer, become a part of the legal community, and develop a network of contacts. Once you've mastered the lawyer part of the equation, your attention can turn towards developing your business muscles, leaving the safe perch of a firm for the uncharted territory of your own practice. Attorneys who have founded their own successful firms carry particular pride and satisfaction in their careers; but first they needed to build the foundation on which to make that possible.
Who Do I Want as My Client?
Fine. You know you want to focus on the generalist side of bankruptcy, and resist specialization. And you have settled on smaller firms. Now what type of client base do you want? A hallmark of corporate bankruptcies, whether Chapter 7 or 11, is that they arc group enterprises. The proceeding starts with the debtor, who seeks bankruptcy to better deal with his secured creditors and individual unsecured creditors, some of whom form an official committee. The bankruptcy process occurs under the auspices of the bankruptcy judge, with the interests of the government represented by the U.S. Trustee. And in a Chapter 7 proceeding, a Chapter 7 Trustee assumes control of the wind-down of the debtor's assets.
The good news about the abundance of cooks in this stew is the variety of options for a bankruptcy attorney's practice. Some attorneys specialize in representing just one type of client; othesr have broader practices, representing debtors, secured lenders, committees and individual unsecured creditors. Others serve as, or represent, Chapter 7 Trustees.
Many new practitioners don't think much about client composition when choosing an employer. But each type of client presents its own challenges, quality of life issues and substantive work.
Debtor representation
Corporate debtor representation affords the bankruptcy practitioner the most diverse and sophisticated experience. Debtor's counsel is involved in every aspect of the proceeding, from the initial consultation to the plan of reorganization post-confirmation and every event in between. In many ways, you will be de facto corporate counsel for the duration of the proceeding and wear every hat discussed in this guide. In a Chapter 11 proceeding, debtor's counsel "serves as the legal quarterback for the rest of a large and often complex team," says Bryan Cave LLP
's Gregory Willard.It's an exciting practice, to say the least. No other type of representation gives the newbie attorney such an excellent and varied education in bankruptcy. Practitioners often get personally invested in the case, given how closely they work with the debtor.
On the flip side, though, it's not always easy watching your new friends get laid off as the debtor winds down its business. The other big downside of this intense engagement, of course, is its time demands, particularly towards the beginning of the case, when debtor's counsel is swamped underneath piles of motions and schedules. "It is a marathon to get everything done" before the first day of the case, says Roger Friedman, noting that once the case begins, every day "can be a fire drill" with more-than-occasional emergencies. But for many, debtor representation is what bankruptcy is all about.
Taming the committee
The experience of committee representation depends on the politics and dynamics of each committee. Some committees are a close-knit, friendly group, but many are filled with tension - at particularly stressful points, these committee meetings can resembling boxing matches. Committees often break up into factions - trade creditors vs. bondholders vs. labor unions.
The diversity of each committee keeps committee representation lively and interesting. Committee counsel often get to play the role of Greek chorus, commenting and negotiating most big issues on behalf of the creditor body without the heavy lifting of debtor's counsel. Negotiation of DIP financing provides a good example. Debtor and secured lenders draft and negotiate the entirety of the credit agreement. Committee counsel, by contrast, focuses on fighting over specific issues, marching into the DIP financing hearing clear-eyed after debtor and secured lenders' counsel have been up the whole night completing the documents.
This is not to say that committee counsel doesn't work hard; the committee is the only client (aside from the debtor) always involved with the bankruptcy from beginning to end, affording committee counsel a top-to-bottom perspective. In many cases, committee counsel handles matters for the debtor, such as sponsoring and drafting the plan of reorganization and disclosure statement. Overall, though, committee representation offers a slightly more sedate and balanced quality of life than debtor representation.
The downsides can be the headaches of dealing with a contentious committee and the repetitive work, such as sending endless faxes and reports to committee members updating them as to the progress of the proceeding. Committee representation is also "more reactive than proactive," notes Shari Siegel of Latham & Watkins LLP
, with committee counsel usually reacting to others' motions and debtor actions. But for many, it provides an ideal balance between the excitement and intensity of being in the center of the action and the calmer lifestyle of non-debtor work.Bank representation
Banks are often perceived as the bad guys in the case - the 800-pound gorilla, the Goliath to the unsecureds' Davids. Lenders, whether pre-petition or post-petition, hold the debtor's purse strings, and can often be tough in enforcing their interests. This makes sense; the bank usually has the most to lose in bankruptcy. When a debtor lays off half its workforce, it is often at the demand of the banks, who realize such layoffs are the only path to reorganization. Bank representation is probably the most "corporate" of any type of bankruptcy practice, for better or for worse.
Bank representation has many benefits - tremendous involvement in the case, akin to (and sometimes more than) that of the committee; a client with tremendous leverage; and much of the intensity and excitement of debtor representation, given that the debtor is essentially playing with the banks' money. In many ways, the bank is the primary party in interest in the proceeding. "Banks file cases, not debtors," observes Ben Becker of Becker Meisel, LLC, meaning that it is often a decision by a bank that triggers the debtor's filing.
Bank representation also has its own unique trajectory. Pre-petition lenders are invariably involved intensely at the beginning of the case, given the size of their interests. The DIP lenders are typically even more involved, negotiating and supervising the use of DIP financing.
Often, however, the banks disappear at some point in the proceedings, typically after they, as secured creditors, are guaranteed a 100 percent return on their investment. The banks' sole interest is money; assured they will get it all back, they tend to lower their profile. While the debtor follows a long and bumpy road, and the committee often takes an equally long but quieter road, the bank starts off at 90 m.p.h. and then slams on the brakes.
Like committee representation, counseling banks offers the practitioner a chance to be at the front lines of a bankruptcy case without all of the debtor's administrative work. In addition, you have the luxury of advocating for the interests of a single client with concrete goals and can usually duck out before the case lingers on for too long. Another advantage of bank representation is the absence of fee applications!
On the downside, you'll likely be forced to play the heavy. (Remember how the banks typically demand that the debtor lay off employees? Well, you're the one that gets to deliver the message.) You should also enjoy drafting financing agreements; a practice representing banks is often more narrow than a debtor-heavy client base, with practitioners spending a significant proportion of their time on commercial finance issues, negotiating DIP agreements and arguing for them in court. For those of you with a financial bent, though, this secured lender practice might be an ideal fit.
Representing individual creditors
Representing an individual creditor (aside from a bank) is a whole different matter. You have the most narrow focus in the case - protecting your solitary client, who can be anyone from a bondholder to the deli down the street. Generally, the individual creditor counsel only pops into the case when his client is directly impacted by a given event - to file his proof of claim form, or, more controversially, to dispute the debtor's estimation of his claim or defend an avoidance action. If your unsecured client is on the committee, you might also attend committee meetings to voice your client's opinion, essentially functioning as a thorn in the side of the thorn in the debtor's side.
Some individual creditors grow more involved in the case, either on their own or as a particularly influential member of the committee. By and large, though, individual creditors have a relatively limited involvement. For many individual creditors with limited claims, greater involvement isn't worth the expense. They leave the heavy lifting - the broad disputes about the plan of reorganization, the assessment of the proposed sale of the debtor's business -to the committee.
Many attorneys specialize in working for individual creditors. These are often smaller, volume-based (relatively speaking) practices, focusing on bankruptcy litigation. While an individual creditor practice is often intense, it generally has a better work-life balance than the all-immersive world of debtor representation. The work is somewhat repetitive, focusing on a few narrow areas - avoidance actions, claims disputes and the like. Representation of trade creditors often involves a lot of explaining and justifying the bankruptcy process, given many trade creditors' limited experience in - and frustration towards - the bankruptcy system. But for the practitioner looking for a "smaller," more even-keeled practice, individual creditor representation might be right.
Other parties of interest
Some particular creditors combine different aspects of the preceding practices. Representing an indenture trustee, deputized with protecting the interests of disparate bondholders, affords the practitioner a combination of the coalition-building of committee work, the relatively limited agenda of individual creditor work and the financial sophistication of bank representation. Counseling a single institutional unsecured client, like a bank holding a very large bond position, is akin to a major in unsecured creditor work with a minor in bank representation; your client may be another unsecured creditor, but it's one with a single financial focus and substantial leverage. Union representation is its own ball of wax. Many practitioners include representation of purchasers (parties who acquire bankruptcy assets) in their practice. Purchaser representation offers a unique combination of litigation and M&A work. Like everything else in bankruptcy, the client base is full of variety, with each type of representation posing its own challenges.
Chapter 7 Trustees
Chapter 7 trusteeships are the refuge of lawyers who really want to be businessmen. A bankruptcy trustee is a court-appointed fiduciary, often an attorney, charged with winding down the business of the Chapter 7 debtor and distributing its assets. Many attorneys devote a substantial portion of their practice to serving as, or representing, a Chapter 7 Trustee. Abiding by the maxim that only a fool hires himself as his lawyer, most Chapter 7 Trustees retain outside counsel, or other attorneys in their firms, to handle the legal work.
To be a Chapter 7 Trustee, you must first be appointed to your region's sitting trustee panel by the Office of the United States Trustee. At the commencement of each Chapter 7 case, the U.S. Trustee's office selects a member of this panel to serve as Chapter 7 Trustee, so an appointment to one's local Chapter 7 panel can open the door to a steady stream of trustee work. Furtheromorc, though trustees are a hallmark of Chapter 7 proceedings, they arc also sometimes appointed in Chapter 11 proceedings involving liquidations of the debtor's entire business.
Many practitioners enjoy serving as Chapter 7 Trustees; while you are still primarily an attorney, you get to act like a quasi-busincssman. "If the business is a restaurant, you get to play restaurateur," albeit one closing down its business, notes Leonard Pefia of Los Angeles bankruptcy boutique Weinstein, Eisen, Weiss & Rothschild LLP.
Many practitioners find representation of Chapter 7 Trustees satisfying from a legal standpoint. Aram Ordubegian, also of Weinstein, Eisen, Weiss & Rothschild LLP, describes Chapter 7 representation as "raw bankruptcy work," focused on quickly wrapping up the estate, maximizing its value through avoidance actions and slicing up the pie to creditors. Trustee representation also affords practitioners the benefit of a savvy client with substantial bankruptcy experience and knowledge and no other interest besides maximizing the value of the estate and creditor returns.
On the downside, the administrative responsibilities of the position, including the filing of endless reports with the court, can grow tedious. Nonetheless, for many practitioners, the opportunity to play fiduciary and businessperson is an exciting change of pace.
Being a Chapter 7 Trustee
Howard Enrenberg is a partner at SulmeyerKupetz, a bankruptcy and insolvency boutique in Los Angeles, California. Mr. Ehrenberg has served on the Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Panel of Trustees for the Central District of California since 1995.
"Why did I become a bankruptcy trustee? Mainly because I get to set my own hours. As a trustee, my job is to review the papers filed by debtors and determine if there are assets that I can sell and later distribute the proceeds to the creditors.
"This involves a fairly detailed review of the papers and then questioning each of the debtors at a hearing when the debtor is under oath. There are rarely emergencies which require immediate attention and working all night, hence my love of the job. At worst, I might take over a small market or convenience store and have to find a way to dispose of the produce before it spoils. There is also another unwritten rule that a trustee should never take possession of something that eats. I once had a racehorse that we practically gave away because I had no funds with which to feed it. And, of course, it won its first race several months later.
"I also have a grove of lemons which I have to water every Tuesday. Just kidding. I hired a farm manager.
"There is no school to learn how to become a trustee. Most trustees in big cities are either lawyers or accountants who previously practiced in bankruptcy. In smaller communities, trustees are often auctioneers or real estate brokers. No particular experience is required, but one does need to be highly organized to handle the mass of paper, intuitive to ferret out the assets, and nice to everyone. That probably disqualifies 98% of the population.
"The job can be quite rewarding in that sometimes a debtor is trying to hide his assets and if I find them, I can make a dividend to creditors who may have been defrauded, so there is a benefit to society in what a trustee does. Trustees also make money based on the value of what they recover, so there is an incentive to try hard.
"The experience is also humbling because I meet 200 or more debtors every month who have been forced to file for bankruptcy. The vast majority are honest hardworking people living paycheck to paycheck who suddenly find themselves in a situation out of their control, like a death or illness in the family or the loss of a job. By giving these people a fresh start, I help keep these people off welfare and return them to being productive members of society.
"Some of my more interesting cases have included Ronald Isley of the Isley Brothers, who managed to owe the IRS $5 million. I eventually sold his music library, but for a while, every time I heard 'Shout' I said, 'Ka-ching.'
"I am currently the trustee for a company whose owner thought that the best thing he could leave his children was a 37,000-square-foot house, with an Olympic-size pool, an 18-hole putting green, and a basketball court that converts to a tennis court with the push of a button. Just a little weekend hideaway. When the sons discovered what Dad was building, they called a lawyer and tried to have him declared incompetent. The sons failed and Dad went bankrupt.
"I was once an attorney for a trustee who ran a female mud wrestling club. My job was to inspect the dressing rooms for health violations.
"The bottom line to this career choice is that while the laws are fairly clear, each business has its own unique characteristics which require that I quickly become knowledgeable in a variety of industries. The people I meet come from all walks of life, and while some may consider me the undertaker, I consider myself to be the coffin builder, the tombstone maker, the gardner, the florist, the printer, the suit maker and the minister all rolled up into one."
On the Government Side
Bankruptcy affords opportunities outside of private practice, most notably working for the government - primarily for the executive branch, with the Office of the United States Trustee, or for the judicial branch as a bankruptcy judge clerk. These offer great opportunities to get up close and personal with the bankruptcy world without many of the business and client pressures unique to private practice.
Office Of The U.S. Trustee
Attention, those of you who hate being wrong: One the best things about working as an attorney at the Office of the United States Trustee is that "your client is always right," says Leonora Long, attorney at the U.S. Trustee's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri in St. Louis. The U.S. Trustee's Office is a subdivision of the United States Department of Justice charged with ensuring that "the law is attended to and adhered to and respected in each bankruptcy case," according to Long.
Each U.S. Trustee sets policy and oversees several regional offices within its particular geographic area (including every section of the nation except for North Carolina, which is not part of the U.S. Trustee network). Every regional office employs a staff of financial analysts, administrative personnel and attorneys.
Attorneys with the U.S. Trustee Office arc involved in every bankruptcy case, weighing in on issues such as the employment of debtor and committee professionals, fee applications, and the plan of reorganization. They prosecute dismissals of bankruptcy cases and conversions from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7, and supervise the selection of Chapter 7 Trustees - and then make sure they are doing their jobs. In addition, U.S. Trustee attorneys enforce Code provisions barring bankruptcy petitions filed in "bad faith," as well as the provisions requiring truthful and accurate schedules. In short, U.S. Trustee attorneys are enforcers of the Code. Appropriately, U.S. Trustee attorneys are 100 percent litigators, in court all the time.
U.S. Trustee attorneys cite many reasons why they enjoy their jobs. Long notes the satisfaction of having a single, consistent client whose concrete positions and goals arise from the Code, a supportive work environment without many of the politics of large firms and the fact that you arc "a lawyer from day one," in court nearly every day, from the beginning of your career. In addition, U.S. Trustee attorneys enjoy a relatively high quality of life, with work weeks averaging 45 to 50 hours, a substantial allotment of vacation days, and the stability of government employment.
On the flip side, U.S. Trustee attorneys do not earn as much as they might in private practice, with salaries maxing out at approximately $115,000 to $120,000 a year, and aren't guaranteed the same resources - word processing departments are not exactly standard issue here. But for most of these attorneys, the upsides make this practice satisfying enough to outweigh any drawbacks.
Clerkships
Clerking for a bankruptcy judge offers a unique opportunity to be in the thick of the bankruptcy world. In this strictly behind-the-scenes job, clerks function as the judges' silent partners. Clerks do not argue in court, do not negotiate transactions, do not counsel clients; instead, they assist the judge in the performance of her duties, researching legal issues and drafting opinions.
Clerking is a plum opportunity for an academic-minded attorney who relishes the research and writing aspects of the legal life. In addition, clerks often enjoy the tight-knit family of the judge's chambers and the balanced hours of the position. Most notably, many clerks enjoy the absence of many of the more stressful aspects of being an advocate - no worrying about building a "book" of business, no client management, no firm bureaucracy.
While some clerks are "permanent" or at least long-term, most clerks only remain in chambers for two or three years. For these temporary clerks, the judicial experience can be a valuable education in substantive bankruptcy law, the judicial process and courtroom practice. As was discussed earlier in the guide, a clerkship can also provide valuable connections and enhance the clerk's value in the legal marketplace later on down the road.
Consumer Bankruptcy Practices
In many ways, the most business-like of all practices is consumer bankruptcy, regardless of whether it is Chapter 7 or Chapter 13. These are volume practices; consumer bankruptcy attorneys file 50, 100, even 150 petitions a month. Many general practice attorneys devote substantial time to consumer bankruptcy work, and many bankruptcy boutique firms have consumer bankruptcy departments. Other practitioners, however, focus solely on consumer bankruptcies, supervising well-run teams of attorneys and paralegals that handle hundreds of cases.
These can be lucrative practices, and consumer bankruptcy attorneys are as much businessmen as lawyers, dependent on bringing in dozens of cases each month. Consumer bankruptcy cases are generally simpler and far less sophisticated than their corporate counterparts with each case substantially identical to the next, usually without the nuances of corporate proceedings. This can obviously be a pro or con, depending on the interests of the particular practitioner.
Many consumer bankruptcy attorneys also enjoy working in a "people practice" where attorneys can help actual individuals as opposed to large corporate entities. "It's the small claims court of the federal system, about consumers, your average Joe," says Los Angeles practitioner Leonard Pcna. For those who would happily trade treatise-like motions for a business-like practice and a client base composed of such "average Joes," a consumer practice might be ideal.
Alternative Practices
Finally, many firms offer practices in the insolvency and reorganization world beyond pure bankruptcy. In particular, many so-called bankruptcy boutiques or insolvency departments, often with appropriately broader names such as "Workouts and Bankruptcies," also handle such restructuring and insolvency matters as:
- Out-of-court reorganizations or asset sales: As discussed above, struggling debtors often opt for non-bankruptcy corporate transactions before - and instead of - bankruptcy. Many bankruptcy attorneys assist participants in the reorganization of debtors' debt and equity or corporate structure; renegotiation of credit facilities; or restructuring of debtors' assets, including asset sales. These largely transactional processes arc often a substantial component of the work in larger firms' bankruptcy and restructuring departments.
- State insolvency procedures: Other firms work with debtors to liquidate their assets via state law procedures, such as receiverships and assignments for the benefit of creditors. This is the particular province of smaller firms. bankruptcy boutiques and sole practitioners, who represent smaller debtors with less complex issues for whom the bells and whistles of bankruptcy might be too costly or less necessary.
- International insolvency: Many large international firms are involved in foreign and cross-border insolvency work. International practices present their own challenges, given the unique nature of each country's insolvency scheme. Whereas United States bankruptcy laws are "framed around the idea that businesses should stay alive," notes James Bromley, who devotes a substantial portion of his practice to international restructuring work, many foreign regimes contemplate only liquidation. These differences make international work intellectually challenging, requiring substantial teamwork between attorneys from different jurisdictions and enough creativity to massage conflicting bankruptcy regimes into place.
While few firms, departments or attorneys specialize in these areas, they can be one component of a broader practice, ranging from the bankruptcy boutique that represents a significant number of receivers and assignees to the commercial financing attorney who spends 30 percent of her time counseling debtors in the restructuring of their credit facility terms to an international firm's restructuring department that devotes half its time to international and cross-border insolvency work.
In short, bankruptcy offers a smorgasbord of options - big firms and small, private practice and government service, corporate versus consumer, debtor versus creditor work, general bankruptcy work versus a specialty.
