Legal News

Bankruptcy Bill to the Rescue

By Dionne Searcey

Is bankruptcy funny? About as funny as a migraine, right?

But Steven Horowitz, a managing director at The Altman Group, a consulting firm that provides bankruptcy services, thinks the topic has great potential. Horowitz, along with illustrator Gideon Kendall, created “Bankruptcy Bill,” a comic strip about the life and times of Bill, a hapless bankruptcy lawyer.

“I’d always entertained ideas of doing some sort of esoteric humor related to bankruptcy law,” says Horowitz, who is based in New York. “I used to think about writing country songs about bankruptcy. And later the idea was a board game about bankruptcy.”

The recent financial crisis has proved all the more inspiring. His bankruptcy-themed works of late have included “a whole bunch of haiku about bankruptcy,” Horowitz says. He penned the dialogue for the comic strip on his subway commute to work. In one, Bankruptcy Bill is slumped back at his desk, entertaining an over-the-phone job solicitation from another bankruptcy firm. The voice on the line tells Bill the offer will “make your cufflinks spin” with a free gym membership, easy subway access and other lavish perks.

The job also comes with “a lead bankruptcy partner who’s manic depressive and a screamer,” the voice says. “Did I mention it’s a total lifestyle firm? Most people leave the office by 9 p.m.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on November 03, 2008 (boomark / email).