The Bankruptcy Research Database
Professor Lynn M. LoPucki and research assistants, devoting a total of more than 3,000 hours of work, compiled the Bankruptcy Research Database over a period of four years. It is the first fully documented, auditable research database on the bankruptcy reorganizations of large, public companies. The database consists of two parts: an electronic database in Microsoft Access 95 and hard copy in file folders showing the source of each piece of electronic data. The electronic database contains fielded data on all of the approximately 300 large publicly held companies that filed cases under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code from October 1, 1979, to the present.
Professor LoPucki directly supervised the compilation of this data and personally checked each piece of data against the hard copy source. The data include the dollar value of assets at filing; place of filing; location of corporate headquarters at the time of filing; book value of assets; dollar amount of sales; the numbers of employees as of the last 10-K before filing and the first 10-K after filing; disposition of the case; date of confirmation; whether plan was prepackaged; location of corporate properties; jurisdictions of incorporation for all members of the group; name of emerging companies; names and firms of debtors' lawyers; the dates that exclusivity was lifted; and other information. The database is constantly growing through the addition of new cases and new fields for new and existing cases. A full description of the protocols employed in gathering the data is available on request. Users of the database can assure themselves of the accuracy of data in the database by random audit. The user can audit by comparing the data in the database for cases randomly selected by the user to the hard copy in LoPucki's files or to the original source.
At present, the data are available to a limited group of academics working the field of bankruptcy empiricism and to cooperating lawyers. In the future, LoPucki hopes to make the data available to a wider group of academics. The Bankruptcy Research Database is the property of Lynn M. LoPucki.