Inside The Detroit Bankruptcy – How The City Was Saved

In July 2013, the City of Detroit filed its petition for bankruptcy. Burdened with $18.5 billion dollars in debt and other liabilities, thousands of retired municipal workers and other creditors, 78,000 abandoned buildings, crumbling infrastructure and services, and a population down 60% from its 1950 peak of 1.8 million, the city once known as the “Arsenal of Democracy” and the home of the American auto industry had become a shell of its former self.

Seventeen months later, Detroit emerged from bankruptcy shedding $7 billion of debt, restructuring other debt and operations, and projecting $1.7 billion available over 10 years for further restructuring and revitalization initiatives. The city’s $300 million operating deficit was erased. And the world-class collections of the city-owned Detroit Institute of Arts, once under threat of being sold off piecemeal, was saved from the auctioneer’s gavel.

How did it happen? What were the key elements of the major settlements with investors, retirees and insurers and the Grand Bargain? What accounts for the different treatment of bondholders? How will the City be able to provide essential public services going forward? And critically, what lessons might other municipalities learn from the Detroit model? Join us when Michael Traison, a Principal of Miller Canfield, moderates a thought-provoking look behind the scenes with four of the recovery’s leading architects:

• Amanda Van Dusen, Principal, Miller Canfield – Local Counsel for the City of Detroit
• The Hon. Gerald Rosen, Chief Judge, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan – Chief Federal Mediator
• Gaurav Malhotra, Partner/Principal, Ernst & Young LLP – Financial Restructuring Advisor
• Chris Gannon, Managing Director, Conway MacKenzie – Turnaround Consultant

MCLE: Two Credit Hours

Registration opens at 4:00 p.m. and the program will begin promptly at 4:30; hors d’oeuvres and a cash/signature bar will be available. The cost is $30 per person (includes tax and gratuity). Please note: the Union League Club of Chicago maintains a "business casual" dress code -- no denim or athletic wear, please.