CLICK HERE to make a donation via PayPal for Strip #17

It’s time to boldly go where no bankruptcy cartoon has ever gone before.  To find out exactly what that means, we need your support to enable us to publish Strip #17 - BAPCPA Man.

Update 06/29/09: Still at $224.  Things may continue to be on hold for a little while as Bill and Struck both put in for vacation from June 30 through July 9 so they can travel to Munich together, learn about German bankruptcy law, take a hike in the Alps to contemplate its greater meaning and see where really good beer fits in with all of this.

Update 06/26/09: Now at $224 thanks to a contribution from a non-bankruptcy humanoid who wishes to remain anonymous, but says:

I’m not a lawyer (or a law student), but I find the comic to be quite amusing (a close friend who accidentally wound up focusing on bankruptcies referred me) and I do get most, if not all, of the jokes.  Keep up the good work!

Update 6/25/09: Getting closer, now at $214 thanks to another generous donation from:

• Nancy Rapoport, (http://nancyrapoport.blogspot.com) which qualifies her to supplant Bill as the main character in future Bankruptcy Bill cartoons!  Check out her recent post on the book Lawyers in Your Living Room!  Law on Television by Michael Asimov.  Nancy is  the Gordon Silver Professor of Law at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with specialties in bankruptcy ethics, ethics in governance, and the depiction of lawyers in popular culture.  We already mentioned that she’s the author of the book Enron: Corporate Fiascos and Their Implications (with Jeffrey Van Niel) and appeared in the movie Enron:  The Smartest Guys in the Room.  

Update 6/21/09: Still at $189 on the summer solstice.

Update 6/18/09: Now up to $189 thanks to:

• Dean Langdon, (second-time donor) a bankruptcy lawyer with the firm of Wise DelCotto PLLC in Lexington, KY and, more importantly, the second bankruptcy lawyer we’re aware of who appears in the IMDB (Internet Movie Database).  “Got to see BAPCPA Man!!” says Dean, who was the associate producer for Ben Johnson:  Third Cowboy on the Right, a documentary on the life of famed character actor and rodeo star Ben Johnson.

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Update 6/18/09: Still stuck at $174.  Running out of cash collateral.  Can anyone recommend a good claims agent?

Update 6/16/09: Now we’re past the halfway mark, up to $174–with $126 left to go–thanks to a third donation from:

• Nancy Rapoport, (http://nancyrapoport.blogspot.com) which qualifies her to potentially be a new character in a future Bankruptcy Bill cartoon! (Non-dischargeable Nancy?)  Nancy is  the Gordon Silver Professor of Law at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with specialties in bankruptcy ethics, ethics in governance, and the depiction of lawyers in popular culture.  We already mentioned that she’s the author of the book Enron: Corporate Fiascos and Their Implications (with Jeffrey Van Niel) and appeared in the movie Enron:  The Smartest Guys in the Room.  But what perhaps you don’t know is that she may be the only bankruptcy lawyer in the Internet Movie Database (IMDB).  (If you know of any others, please let us know and we’ll post their names here.)

Update 6/15/09: Up to $149, thanks to a donation from:

• Marc Stern, a bankruptcy lawyer in Seattle, WA with over 27 years of law practice experience who has what may be the boldest and funniest website address a lawyer could ever hope to have:  www.chutzpahlaw.com.  Marc has also co-written a book titled Letters for Bankruptcy Lawyers: Essential Communication for Clients, Creditors, Opposing Counsel and Others and a number of articles including Debts That Can Follow You to the Grave.

*For the record, the lawyers and others who have donated don’t ask us to write this stuff.  We just take a look at their websites, perhaps while sitting on a conference call with committee counsel, and come up with it on our own in the moments between working on fee applications and filing objections.

Update 6/14/09: No new donations over the weekend.  Still at $124 with $176 to go.  Running out of time before our reorganization is converted to a liquidation.

Update 6/12/09: Still stuck at $124.  Not a strong way to enter the weekend.  Why is it that our country is willing to bail out strips about GM but not about BAPCPA Man?

Update 6/12/09: Up to $124.  Only $176 to go. Thanks to:

• Michael Shiner, a bankruptcy attorney in Pittsburgh, PA with the law firm of Tucker Arensberg, P.C. who says, “Keep up the great work!”  According to his firm bio, Mike was named a 2007 Pennsylvania Rising Star by Philadelphia Magazine and by Pennsylvania Super Lawyers Magazine.

Update 6/11/09: $113 in “assets,” $187 in “outstanding liabilities,” thanks to donations from:

• Daniel Granof of the Independent Comedy Network (which has great original comedy video shorts)
• Mimi Speyerer, law clerk to Chief Judge Edward Ellington of the United States Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Mississippi (who is himself apparently a big fan of Bankruptcy Bill as well).

Thanks to carry-over donations from Strip #16, we get a $78 head start.  That means we only need to raise $222 to make this happen.

With small donations ($5, $3, even $1) from all of our readers, we can cram this plan down on those who do not support this site.  With large donations, we can do it faster than you can say “363 Asset Sale.”

As soon as we solicit enough support, we publish.  (And, not to boast, but we’ve got enough material in the bank to put out a new cartoon every day.  So feel free to challenge us with threats of a bankruptcy cartoon endowment.)

And as you’ve seen, we’re happy to post a link to your website, your blog or anything else that’ll make you feel good about chipping in.

Thanks for your continued STR.I.P. financing support, and we look forward to publishing again soon.

Yours truly,

Bill & Struck

"Plan B? I spill my coffee on you and we sue Starbucks."

*********************

Thank you to everyone who supported Bankruptcy Bill with a donation and/or by mentioning our effort on your site, including LawShucks.com which encouraged readers to support Bankruptcy Bill in a post about the lawyers involved in the GM case and then subsequently got itself a nice mention in a New York times articles on law firms that resulted in some extra traffic for us.

But the super-priority secured thank-you (a new creditor class recently approved by the…um….Eastern Western District of Delaware) goes to three people who stepped forward at the last minute, each making donations of $39 to ensure an extension of time to solicit donations for Bankruptcy Bill (at least for another week):

• Nancy Rapoport, (who has now donated twice) the Gordon Silver Professor of Law at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with specialties in bankruptcy ethics, ethics in governance, and the depiction of lawyers in popular culture.  She’s also the author of the book Enron: Corporate Fiascos and Their Implications (with Jeffrey Van Niel) and appeared in the movie Enron:  The Smartest Guys in the Room.  You can read her blog here.
• Marc Carroll, of Translations.com (a rare non-lawyer fan)
• Walter Swett, a staff member in Congressman Charlie Rangel’s office in New York (another non-lawyer fan, which on second thought perhaps isn’t so rare afterall)

Bankruptcy Bill loves you guys (to the extent that an animated lawyer is capable of love) and thanks you for not only enabling the publication of this strip, but for starting off the next strip $78 in the black.  And the next strip is……..

Strip #17 - BAPCPA Man!

Does whatever a BAPCPA can.  Please do your part to help us raise the remaining $222 we need to publish it.

CLICK HERE to make a donation via PayPal for Strip #17

• Please don’t make Nancy, Marc, Walter and the others do all the work again (unless your goal is to turn them into clients).  If everyone chips in a little bit, even $1.00, the pain will be spread nice and evenly and everything will work out fine, just like in the new GM tv ad.

A reminder that we are always open to various forms of STR.I.P. Financing to help us continue to publish future strips of Bankruptcy Bill (ideally with more frequency).  Please contact us to discuss sponsorship or syndication opportunities.

• “GM First Day Hearings”
  
  • Posters - now available for purchase at:  http://www.zazzle.com/gm_first_day_hearings_poster-228977388281472583
  • Mugs - now available for purchase at:  http://www.zazzle.com/gm_first_day_hearings_mug-168706767375752803

• To receive updates for new postings:E-mail bill@bankruptcybill.us with the word “update” in the subject field, or get the RSS feed. (Note:  The previous e-mail address–bankruptcybill @ zoho. com–was having some problems.  So apologies if you tried sending email to that address and didn’t hear back from us.)

• Here are links to see more of Gideon Kendall’s creative artwork as well as his Sketch Journal and a recent profile of Gideon in the Kensington Brooklyn Blog.

Thanks!

-Bill & Struck

p.s.  Regarding copyright issues, our legal counsel, IP Aileen, says:  “Other bloggers/websites/publications:  You are more than welcome to post Strip #16 on your sites as long as you also include all of the text, links and images in this post, including this paragraph.  If you fail to respect our wishes, then we’ll turn you into a Weil Gotshal first-year bankruptcy associate and force you to spend 17 consecutive weekends in the bowels of 767 Fifth Avenue (aka the “GM Building”) working on fee applications in the GM case.”

******************

A reminder that we still are seeking STR.I.P. Financing so that we can continue to publish future strips of Bankruptcy Bill (and preferably with more frequency).  Please contact us to discuss sponsorship.  And thanks to everyone who has contributed and/or bought some merchandise.

• “GM Bankruptcy” Mugs - now available for purchase at http://www.zazzle.com/general_motors_bankruptcy_mug-168929093027665439.




• To receive updates for new postings: E-mail bill@bankruptcybill.us with the word “update” in the subject field, or get the RSS feed.

• Here are links to see more of Gideon Kendall’s creative artwork as well as his Sketch Journal.

Thanks!

-Bill & Struck

p.s.  Regarding copyright issues, our legal counsel, IP Aileen, says:  “Other bloggers/websites/publications:  You are more than welcome to post Strip #8 on your sites as long as you also include all of the text, links and images in this post, including this paragraph.  If you don’t, then we’ll find you and make you drive a Chevrolet Cavalier from Detroit to Washington and testify before Congress at the next auto-industry bailout hearings.”

Strip #16 - GM First Day Hearings is going effective!

Update 06/08/11:03 p.m.: We did it!  Strip #16 - GM First Day Hearings is going effective thanks to three last-minute donations of $39 from:

• Nancy Rapoport, (who has now donated twice) the Gordon Silver Professor of Law at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with specialties in bankruptcy ethics, ethics in governance, and the depiction of lawyers in popular culture.  She’s also the author of the book Enron: Corporate Fiascos and Their Implications (with Jeffrey Van Niel) and appeared in the movie Enron:  The Smartest Guys in the Room.  You can read her blog here.
• Marc Carroll, of Translations.com (a rare non-lawyer fan)
• Walter Swett, a staff member in Congressman Charlie Rangel’s office in New York (another non-lawyer fan, which on second thought perhaps isn’t so rare afterall)

Update 06/08/11:36 a.m.: TODAY IS  THE LAST DAY for Bankruptcy Bill unless we can raise $39.  No more joking.  Just a straight-up request for donations so we can keep providing entertainment for the community of bankruptcy professionals.

Update 06/07/09 10:23 p.m.: Still stuck at $261.  Still need $39 of cash collateral to make this happen.  (FYI, we had 152 site visits–on a Sunday, no less–and not a single donation from any of those readers.  Maybe they’re all tax and ERISA lawyers?)

Update 06/06/09 9:55 p.m.: Almost there:  $261.  $39 to go to find out what really goes on at GM’s first day hearings.  Latest donors include:

• Kent Anderson of Kent Anderson Associations, P.C. in Euguene, OR.  Click here to see Kent’s articles on the Bankruptcy Law Network.
  

Update 06/05/09 8:00 a.m.: Up to $246!  $54 to go until we can publish Strip #16 - GM First Day Hearings.  That’s triple chai (i.e., 3 x $18).  Like giving a gift to each of Bill, Struck and Aileen for their triple bar/bat mitzvah.  (Note to self:  Hold onto idea for future cartoon.)  Recent donors include:

• Hannah Purdy, an architect (yes, Bankruptcy Bill’s fandom runs far and wide) based in Brooklyn, NY with the firm of Walsh & Purdy, which specializes in architecture and interior design and has a terrific national reptuation.
• Eugene Melchione, a bankruptcy lawyer based in Waterbury, CT who is also the Connecticut State Chair of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys and recently elected to serve as President of the Bankruptcy Law Network.
• Dean Langdon, a bankruptcy lawyer with the firm of Wise DelCotto PLLC in Lexington, KY.
• Mary M. Taylor, a bankruptcy lawyer and founder of the Ponchartrain Law Center in Metairie and Mandeville, Louisiana.

Update 06/04/09 4:15 p.m.: Crossed the $200 mark to $211.  $89 away from Strip #16 - GM First Day Hearings.  Big firm bankruptcy lawyers bill $89 just for blowing their nose, so if you haven’t donated yet, start blowing your nose and make this happen.  New donors include:

• Richard A. Isacoff, a bankruptcy and real estate attorney who has been practicing for over 30 years in Pittsfield, North Adams and Berkshire County, MA.

Update 06/04/09 10:00 a.m.: Up to $196.  Plus some good love from LawShucks.com in a nice post that breaks down the law firm winners and runners-up in representing key committees and constituencies in the GM bankruptcy case.  (Kind of reads like a James Clavell novel.)

Update 06/03/09 4:53 p.m.: Rocketed up to $171 in the last 7 hours.  So is this it?  Are you going to let Bankruptcy Bill peter out like a Chevy Nova after 10,000 miles?  (Granted, it’s still a better rate of return than taxpayers will likely get on their investment in GM.)

Update 06/03/09 9:33 a.m.: Now at $170. Including donations from:

• Trademark (not bankruptcy) lawyer Scott Alprin of Alprin Law Offices, a bilingual (Japanese & English) firm based in Washington, D.C.  (Score one for IP Aileen!)
• Sam V. Calvert, bankruptcy and real estate attorney in St. Cloud, MN who has been practicing there since 1978.
  

Update 06/02/09 5:00 p.m.: Up to $140.  Isn’t that about the rate big firms bill out rookie paralegals?  (I mean, assuming they haven’t already been laid off.)

Update 06/02/09 11:37 a.m.: Up to $95.  Donors so far include:

• Jonathan Ginsberg of Ginsberg Law in Atlanta, founder of theBKblog
• Warren Agin of  Swiggart & Agin, LLC, a boutique law firm in Boston, Massachusetts focusing on the needs of technology companies, and writer of the Tech Bankruptcy blog
• Nancy Rapoport, Gordon Silver Professor of Law at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with specialties in bankruptcy ethics, ethics in governance, and the depiction of lawyers in popular culture.  She’s also the author of the book Enron: Corporate Fiascos and Their Implications (with Jeffrey Van Niel) and appeared in the movie Enron:  The Smartest Guys in the Room.  You can read her blog here.
  

Update 06/02/09 7:50 a.m.: Up to $65!  Still a ways to go but making progress.  Would really like to publish Strip #16 - GM First Day Hearings before the case is wrapped up.  Perhaps there’s a Weil or Dewey or even Honigman lawyer reading this who can negotiate a small cartoon carve-out?

Update 06/01/09 4:28 p.m.: Only one donation for $25 so far.   Come on, in the time it’ll take you to click over to AboveTheLaw, you could donate $1.00 via PayPal.  Would it help if we run a TV commercial showing Bill and Struck sporting rally caps?

Summary:  As soon as we reach $300 in aggregate donations, we can publish Strip #16 - GM First Day Hearings.

CLICK HERE to make a donation via PayPal

To our readers:

Bankruptcy Bill needs your help with its financial reorganization.

We have reached a point where we cannot afford to continue publishing cartoons and other content without consistent and significant STR.I.P. financing.  Absent a consistent source of advertising or syndication, we believe the only solution is to seek donations directly from our community of readers.  (Kind of like the NPR model, except that we’re actually going to stop “broadcasting” if we can’t raise enough for each strip.)

Here’s how the plan of reorganization is going to work going forward:

• We need to raise $300 before we can publish our next strip (#16 -  GM First Day Hearings).
• Help us by making a donation (via PayPal) in any amount — as little as $1.00 and as much as… well, heck, no need to put an upper limit on it.
• Once we reach $300, we’ll publish the strip.
• Any amount over $300 will automatically be applied towards the funding for the next strip.

We’re hoping there are enough people out there willing to make small donations each time (and perhaps a few willing to make larger donations) so that we can keep this site going well into the future.  We get well over 300 views each time we publish a new strip or haiku, so we’re optimistic that this approach can work even if everyone were to send in only $1.00.

And for the record, we’ve still got plenty of unpublished material.  It’s just a matter of spending professional time getting it drawn and maintaining the site.

Of course, we’re always open to advertising, syndication, customized cartoons, commissioned paintings of cartoons and any other ways to fund the site that would make the NPR model moot for us.  Just email us at bill @ bankruptcybill.us for more information.

"Plan B? We try to get a Haiku Committee established in the GM case. With so many other committees I figure maybe it slides by."

In the meantime, thanks for your support and your donations.  We’d really like to keep this site as a going concern, and we hope you feel similarly.

Sincerely,

Bill & Struck

p.s.  And if this doesn’t work, well, hey, it was fun while it lasted.

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Bankruptcy Bill isn’t the only one into haiku these days.  NPR’s Planet Money has collected a bunch of good ones from its readers here:  http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2009/05/our_favorite_recession_haiku.html

Memorial Day Special Haiku:

****************

Chillin’ and grillin’

We try to forget that soon

GM will file

****************

Read more bankruptcy haiku here.

You may have noticed that the domain for this site is now “bankruptcybill.us,” and if you go to bankruptcybill.wordpress.com, you’re automatically brought to this site.  This is because we finally have the site hosted on an independent server which enables us to do a few things here and there that we can’t do on a wordpress.com site.  (If you want to learn more on the topic, feel free to get in touch for a tutorial.)

Of course, “.us” wasn’t exactly our first choice.  But bankruptcybill.com and bankruptcybill.net were already taken, and bankruptcybill.org seemed a tad precocious.  So after some consideration we decided that our readers are all patriotic, bankruptcy law fearin’ Americans and that a “.us” would not only do the trick, it would even give us a sort of fresh start, if you will.

Bearing all this in mind, we look forward to continued reader support as we say good bye to the Dot Com Era and hope that Bankruptcy Bill will help usher in what we hope will be a big new Dot U.S. Era.

Bankruptcy Bill could really use some STR.I.P. Financing.  We’ve been doing this all so far without any syndication or sponsorship, and at least one of the creators of the cartoon is a starving freelance illustrator who may soon be in need of some of our readers’ services, if you catch our drift.

You can help just by making a donation via PayPal.  With a little support we can do a whole lot more than we’ve been doing, including publishing several strips each week.  Just think of us as the NPR of the bankruptcy humor world.

Additionally, anyone interested in syndicating or sponsoring the site’s content, please contact us at bill [at] bankruptcybill [dot] us.

Gliding underneath

The great shark’s belly, I wait

For the conflict work

***************

Purchase the “Conflicts” Haiku Mug here.

Read more Bankruptcy Haiku here.

The Deal’s Bankruptcy Insider has a feature this week (subscription required) in the Letter from Delaware section on the Indubitable Equivalents, a band comprised of bankruptcy professionals that has been rocking the bankruptcy conference circuit.

According to their web page on the ABI site, the “Indubies” (as they call themselves) are:

• Andy Caine (Alto Sax)
• Jack Esher (Bass/Acoustic Guitar/Vocals)
• Steven Golick (Organ, Wind Controller)
• John Good (Trombone/Bass/Percussion)
• Dillon Jackson (Pedal Steel/Autoharp)
• George Kelakos (Lead Guitar)
• Jordan Kroop (Organ/Piano/Lead Vocals/Harmonica)
• Steven Rhodes (Rhythm Guitar)
• Michael Richman (Piano/Vocals)
• Mitch Ryan (Lead Vocals)
• Tom Salerno (Drums/Vocals)

Click here for audio samples, here for t-shirts and here for photos.

No word yet on rumors that they plan to team up with Bankruptcy Bill & The Fresh Starts for a summer stadium tour.

A reminder that we are always open to various forms of STR.I.P. Financing to help us continue to publish future strips of Bankruptcy Bill (ideally with more frequency).  Please contact us to discuss sponsorship.  And thanks to everyone who has purchased a bit of merchandise.

• “AboveTheLaw”
  
  • Posters - now available for purchase at http://www.zazzle.com/bankruptcy_bill_above_the_law_poster-228919838424232157
  • Mugs - now available for purchase at http://www.zazzle.com/bankruptcy_bill_above_the_law_mug-168286032811618539
• To receive updates for new postings: E-mail bill@bankruptcybill.us with the word “update” in the subject field, or get the RSS feed.

• Here are links to see more of Gideon Kendall’s creative artwork as well as his Sketch Journal and a recent profile of Gideon in the Kensington Brooklyn Blog.

Thanks!

-Bill & Struck

p.s.  Regarding copyright issues, our legal counsel, IP Aileen, says:  “Other bloggers/websites/publications:  You are more than welcome to post Strip #15 on your sites as long as you also include all of the text, links and images in this post, including this paragraph.  If you fail to respect our wishes, then we’ll get you laid off from your blog, leak news of it to Law Shucks and insist your anonymity be revealed by Thomas Lauria and the Chrysler Non-TARP Lenders.”

A recent article on Corinne Ball, lead debtor’s counsel to Chrysler, inspired an additional haiku on the topic of Chrysler’s bankruptcy:

Reuters has listed Bankruptcy Bill as a sign of the times in its recurring feature “Signs of the Times”.

This past Wednesday, Harvard bankruptcy professor Elizabeth Warren, who is serving as chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for TARP, appeared on The Daily Show.  Have a look if you haven’t already seen it.

• Part 1 of her appearance:  http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=224261&title=elizabeth-warren-pt.-1
• Part 2 of her appearance:  http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=224262&title=elizabeth-warren-pt.-2

A reminder that we are always open to various forms of STR.I.P. Financing to help us continue to publish future strips of Bankruptcy Bill (ideally with more frequency).  Please contact us to discuss sponsorship.  And thanks to everyone who has purchased a bit of merchandise.

• “Online Dating”
  
  • Posters - now available for purchase at http://www.zazzle.com/bankruptcy_bill_online_dating_poster-228756363271396607
  • Mugs - now available for purchase at http://www.zazzle.com/bankruptcy_bill_online_dating_mug-168054161334023908
• To receive updates for new postings: E-mail bill@bankruptcybill.us with the word “update” in the subject field, or get the RSS feed.

• Here are links to see more of Gideon Kendall’s creative artwork as well as his Sketch Journal and a recent profile of Gideon in the Kensington Brooklyn Blog.

Thanks!

-Bill & Struck

p.s.  Regarding copyright issues, our legal counsel, IP Aileen, says:  “Other bloggers/websites/publications:  You are more than welcome to post Strip #14 on your sites as long as you also include all of the text, links and images in this post, including this paragraph.  If you fail to respect our wishes, then we’ll force you to participate in a speed dating session consisting entirely of ERISA lawyers.”

Ladies and gentlemen, debtors and creditors, we are pleased to share the debut single by Bankruptcy Bill & The Fresh Starts….

“Bankruptcy Lover“

http://bankruptcybill.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/bankruptcylovermp3.mp3

(Click either the link above or the image below to listen.)

Bankruptcy Bill & The Fresh Starts groupies can get their…

• Posters here: http://www.zazzle.com/poster_bankruptcy_bill_the_fresh_starts-228608539647711199
• Mugs here: http://www.zazzle.com/mug_bankruptcy_bill_the_fresh_starts-168135713990751518
• Hats here: http://www.zazzle.com/hat_bankruptcy_bill_the_fresh_starts-148439025032658748
  

Click here for the lyrics and explanatory notes as well as a note on copyright and use restrictions. Read the rest of this entry »