UPDATE: 7/20/13, 6:20 p.m. EST. A statement from Clark Hill has been added to the 15th paragraph of this story.
In filing for Chapter 9 protection Thursday, Detroit took its first legal step toward the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history—and set off a scramble among a bevy of firms eager to land assignments on the record-setting case.
The 207-year-old city, which for years served as a
beacon of American industrial might before beginning its long, slow descent into insolvency, has seen its population drop from nearly 2 million people in 1950 to just 650,000 today, according to a bankruptcy court filing detailing the city’s deteriorating finances.
And while
books,
feature stories,
films, and seemingly
endless slideshows
chronicling that decline have become popular of late, former Jones Day partner Kevyn Orr—appointed to
serve as the city's emergency financial manager roughly four months ago by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder—has now turned to bankruptcy court to help
reverse the city's grim reality.
Among those taking part in the push to put Detroit on a sound fiscal footing are a fast-growing army of legal, financial, and restructuring advisers that are grabbing roles in a Chapter 9 case that, as of Friday, is being overseen by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge
Steven Rhodes. The professionals advising the city must now convince Rhodes—a
reportedly tough bankruptcy veteran who presided over the
Chapter 11 case of now-defunct auto parts maker Collins & Aikman—that Chapter 9 was their only viable option.
