For 30 years I have studied the American chapter 11 bankruptcy system, first as a practicing lawyer and subsequently as a law professor. In that period, the American bankruptcy system has withstood myriad economic challenges—the dot.com bust of the 2000s, the fallout from the 9/11 attacks, the financial crisis, the auto company bankruptcies (and the city of Detroit itself), and most recently, the economic destruction caused by the pandemic and government responses to it. But despite its resiliency, the bankruptcy system is facing a threat that is more damaging, as it strikes at the heart of the system itself—the abuse of the system by predatory class action lawyers who are exploiting the system for their own selfish interests and harming their own clients in the process.
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