Arent Fox’s Mark Joachim, a partner in the firm’s Bankruptcy practice, was featured in Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review discussing bankruptcy milestones that condition access to loans on a quick asset sale or rapid restructuring.

The article reported that, “companies trying to restructure today face very short leashes from their existing lenders, who are using the lure of fresh money to fast-track Chapter 11 cases.” The article featured an unsecured creditor that had less than two weeks to sell itself or risk losing its bankruptcy financing. “Bankruptcy judges can do a lot of things, but they can’t write checks,” said Mr. Joachim. “They hold their nose and they sign it.”

As a way around bankruptcy talks that can stretch on for months, lenders offer debtor-in-possession (DIP) loans that allow the lender to have a minimum wait. The article reported that DIP lenders are “overwhelming” companies’ existing lenders in deals known as “defensive” loans. “If there were more people doing offensive DIP lending,” said Mr. Joachim, “you would have creditor committees and debtors and courts that would feel comfortable saying to the DIP lender ‘no.’”