A few years ago, a prominent Puerto Rican lawyer was musing over who was responsible for Puerto Rico’s financial woes. “It was no one’s fault, but everyone’s to blame,” he remarked. The comment is simple yet powerful, as it captures Puerto Rico’s complex finances, tenuous political standing, and...
As bankruptcy cases have become more complex and litigious, mediation has increasingly offered a forum for negotiation. Formal litigation of disputes in bankruptcy cases and adversary proceedings frequently imposes significant economic burdens on parties and delays resolution of those disputes. In...
Change is hard. This bromide—so beloved by the uninspiring TED speaker and corporate hatchet man alike—is both obvious and trite. It’s also true. Adapting to the changes that inevitably appear in business and life is difficult. Indeed, if more businesspeople were better at this task, many...
As I pen this guest editor’s column for the Journal of Corporate Renewal’s retail restructuring issue, it is the first week of 2022. At this time of year, I always reflect on the previous year—what happened across the globe, in restructuring, in retail, and in my practice. In 2021, I left my...
While I was writing this guest editor’s column for the Journal of Corporate Renewal , two large Chinese real estate companies, China Evergrande and Modern Land, were making headlines as potential restructurings. Is this a sign that there will be broader implications across the global economy? The...
It is rare that you find a restructuring professional without an opinion (or two) on an insolvency topic, but when we started to plan this month’s issue of the JCR , the reactions were more restrained. Given the continuing struggle between federal and state law, many U.S. practitioners didn’t know...
Family businesses have evolved significantly since their humble agrarian beginnings. Over time, family businesses have become increasingly complex and, for many, the bucolic family farmhouse has been replaced by corporate boardrooms. Today, family businesses are a critical part of the U.S. economy...
Last year, when I sat down to write the guest editor’s column for the 2020 healthcare issue, we were reeling from a pandemic that not only was straining our already overtaxed healthcare system but also exacerbating the socio-political fissures that have dominated headlines, created misinformation,...
I sit writing this column at a desk looking out over the sea in Port Erin, Isle of Man. After 15 months of restrictions, I am once more finally at my mother’s home and, as the place I grew up, in my “hometown.” If all goes well, day-to-day life on the Isle of Man is a foretaste of what should very...
In this month’s issue of the Journal of Corporate Renewal , we turn to the retail industry. Over the past year, we saw the COVID-19 pandemic not only create new challenges for the industry but also exacerbate existing industry headwinds and shifting consumer habits. The upshot is that we saw the...
