Kyle Harrison
to-read

Courting Failure

Courting Failure: How Competition for Big Cases Is Corrupting the Bankruptcy Courts
Author
Lynn M. LoPucki
Published
2005
Pages
322
Recommended
Once
Buy on Amazon ↗

Why it’s on the list: LoPucki’s study of venue shopping in large Chapter 11 cases — how Delaware and the Southern District of New York came to attract the big filings, and what competing for them did to the outcomes. The industry answer for restructuring: the law is a market and the judges are in it.

Where I saw it: In the reply thread to @WillManidis’s question, “what is the single best book you can read that will explain an entire industry?” (June 2, 2025) — a crowd-sourced list Kyle recovered by hand and saved to his Apple Note “Books To Read”; the full set of replies lives on what is the single best book… (tweet). It was listed there as “Courting Failure”.

Connections

  • Debt — what happens at the end of the capital structure.
  • Institutions — courts responding to competitive pressure like any other organisation.
  • Private Equity — the repeat players whose choice of venue drives the dynamic.
  • what is the single best book… (tweet) — the thread this recommendation came from.