Bullivant Houser Bailey is in Chapter 11 as a law-firm wind-down, with Ronald L. Richman serving as Chief Dissolution Officer and the debtor using the case to centralize collections, preserve remaining cash, and pursue a liquidating plan after operations ceased. The firm filed on December 15, 2025, after nearly 80 years in business, following a sequence of attorney and shareholder departures, a failed merger process, and a prepetition shift from operating law firm to dissolution vehicle, as described in the Richman first-day declarationDkt. 11.
The path into bankruptcy began with pressure on the firm’s revenue base and equity structure. Bullivant generated $31 million of gross revenue in 2024, but departures in late 2024 and 2025 included a group tied to 17% of billings; merger discussions with an Am Law 200 firm failed in September 2025, and shareholders approved dissolution on September 23, 2025. The firm stopped providing legal services on October 31, 2025, retained eight core employees to manage collections and wind-down work, and entered Chapter 11 after a former shareholder sued for capital repayment, creating the risk of competing recoveries ahead of general creditor administration, according to the Richman first-day declarationDkt. 11.
The case is therefore not a going-concern rescue or sale process on the current record; it is a controlled liquidation built around cash, accounts receivable, client-trust administration, employee wind-down obligations, and claim priority. The debtor reported roughly $968,796 of unencumbered operating funds and $2.2 million of accounts receivable as of the petition date, after paying Columbia Bank’s secured debt in full prepetition to avoid postpetition interest and fees; its first-day relief sought authority to maintain cash management, return client trust funds, pay limited employee obligations, use modest corporate cards, and retain Donlin Recano as claims and noticing agent through the . The near-term restructuring posture is a plan of liquidation that would collect remaining receivables, administer wind-down costs, and address former shareholder capital claims behind general creditor recoveries.
