Current posture

What matters now

Bullivant Houser Bailey is using Chapter 11 to complete an orderly liquidation after ceasing the practice of law, with a small wind-down team focused on collecting receivables and administering remaining obligations. The regional law firm entered 2025 with 58 attorneys, including 19 equity shareholders, but a series of key lawyer and practice-group departures impaired profitability and reduced its revenue base; one departing group had generated approximately 17% of billings. Merger discussions with an Am Law 200 firm did not produce a transaction, and the shareholders approved dissolution on September 23, 2025, appointing Ronald L. Richman as chief dissolution officer. The firm stopped providing legal services on October 31 and retained eight core employees for the wind-down, according to the first-day declaration Dkt. 11. The debtor initially pursued an out-of-court dissolution under Oregon law. That path changed after a former shareholder sued on November 11, 2025 to recover a capital repayment, creating concern that additional former shareholders could race to obtain recoveries ahead of general creditors. Bullivant therefore filed its Chapter 11 petition Dkt. 1 on December 15, 2025, seeking a…

Updated Jul 20, 2026