Bankruptcy Judge Kaplan Walks a Fine Line to Position New Jersey as Top Venue

A former bankruptcy trustee and small-town mayor, Michael Kaplan wants large cases filed in New Jersey but says justice isn’t for sale

Judge Michael Kaplan recalls his disappointment when large companies in the state would snub his New Jersey court to take their chapter 11 cases elsewhere.

“I never want to question lawyers on the advice they’re giving their client, but there’s a pride factor. I think myself and my colleagues can do and handle any case that’s filed anywhere,” Kaplan, the chief judge of the federal bankruptcy court in New Jersey, said in a recent interview. 

April 2023 was a particularly busy month for New Jersey. The chapter 11 case of America’s largest bridal retailer David’s Bridal and home-goods retailer Bed Bath & Beyond went to Kaplan’s colleagues, while he took the remaining two, which were tort cases. Major cases continued to flow to New Jersey for the rest of 2023, including drugstore chain Rite Aid filing in October and co-working space provider WeWork in November, both represented by national law firm Kirkland & Ellis and its New Jersey co-counsel Cole Schotz. 

Michael Sirota, a bankruptcy lawyer with Cole Schotz, said he had known Kirkland lawyers for two decades, but only recently did the two firms join forces in bringing major cases to New Jersey. Sirota said he has asked Kirkland lawyers to “consider New Jersey as an option, given the jurisdictional ties, rather than ignore New Jersey.”

“In some cases, they did file in New Jersey, and in many cases, they did not,” he said. Kirkland declined to comment.  

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