Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy, What Lessons can be Drawn?

Abstract

There is disagreement about whether large and complex financial institutions should be allowed to use US bankruptcy law to reorganise when they get into financial difficulty. We look at the events surrounding the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy filing for lessons as to whether bankruptcy law could be used to produce an orderly windup of the affairs of a failed financial firm. If so, then judicial resolution under the US Bankruptcy Code might be a better alternative to bailouts or to resolution under the Dodd–Frank Act's orderly liquidation authority. We find that there is no clear evidence that bankruptcy law is insufficient to handle the resolution of large complex financial firms.