Jefferson County Retains Klee Tuchin For Upcoming Chapter 9 Legal Advice

As anyone who follows the restructuring process (and religiously reads debtwire) will tell you, the first sign of smoke is when a creditor retain legal bankruptcy counsel, promptly followed by financial, which in turn, or at least 95% of the time, leads to a dropping off of bankruptcy docs at the local bankruptcy court, or Southern New York. And where there's smoke, there's Alabama fire. According to blog al.com [8], the Jefferson County Commission has just retained the services (at $975/hour) of Ken Klee, of LA-based Klee Tuchin, [9]best known for advising Orange County on its Chapter 9 filing back in 1994. And with this the probability that Jefferson County will conclude that the time to file its own Chapter 9 in two days, is virtually a certainty (and sorry, no bankruptcy lawyer will advise his clients not to file for bankruptcy. Hourly retainer, remember?). And with the US debt situation still unlikely to be resolved within 48 hours, the last thing the market needs is to worry not only what known on effects this mega-municipal bankruptcy case will end up generating, but who else will file after. That said, we are confident the market will surge even more as it digests these news. Why? Two words: Bernanke Put.
From al.com

The commission voted unanimously to hire Klee and his law partner, Lee Bogdanoff, who will be paid $875 an hour, to assist the county with bankruptcy and other legal matters.

The firm will be paid $50,000 to start.

Klee served as a consultant on bankruptcy legislation to the U.S. Department of Justice. He is viewed by many as one of the nation's top experts on Chapter 9 and was involved in the Orange County, Calif, bankruptcy filing in 1994.

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