Deals that defined an era

No one definition of what a successful bankruptcy is binds lawyers and advisers, which may be one reason why there are so many repeat filings.

Large bankruptcies are coming in waves now, and the professionals working on them are in for the rides of their life.

The consumer-products subplot in the pharmaceutical megamergers.

The hot new social networking tool has a lot of users -- too bad it lacks a business model.

Eager to discern a trend, the media has scrambled to tell us how we children of recession have gotten so thrifty. What's next: Victory gardens?

A Chicago bank sings the blues under a ton of foreclosed mortgages, but it's not alone.

Zombie banks wait for their day of reckoning, but more often than not, the FDIC acts on its own schedule.

The dot-com debacle spread, terrorists attacked and Enron imploded — it was a year to check your certainties at the door.

AIG chairman Edward Liddy takes his lumps testifying before Congress.

The Sept. 11 attacks couldn't generate enough political heat to melt the privacy protections that some state governments offer corporate owners, but the financial crisis just might.

While debt markets remain quiet, the retained corporate broker is at the center of the U.K.'s financing action.

M&A tips in broadcasting deals.

The asset protection scheme could encourage banks to force an otherwise salvageable debt into default, but that's not what the economy needs.

Proposed changes to Delaware's corporate law statute reflect a desire to appear responsive to shareholders.

Fried Frank's Daniel Bursky advised Paulson & Co. in its role in the Dow-Rohm deal.

Bruce Evans takes the reins of Deutsche's M&A effort at a difficult time.

This winter, Medtronic bought three privately held heart-valve replacement technology firms. Fredrikson & Byron's John Wurm and others advised on its CoreValve.

Damian Ridealgh and other Fried Frank attorneys advised Merck on its deal for Schering.

Aryeh Bourkoff has just been named UBS' joint global head of media and communications investment banking.

Gilead tapped Cooley Godward's Rick Climan for advice on its $1.4B CV Therapeutics deal.

Fresh from organizing online fundraising for the Obama campaign, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes has joined General Catalyst Partners as entrepreneur-in-residence.

Distressed acquisitions take center stage.

CNPCI's Verenex deal needs Libya's OK, and GFIA needed more time to restructure deal financing for its Forsys buy, so the target pushed back the close date.

Bringing back Glass-Steagall involves a variety of tough questions about safety and viability. And then there's the problem of who gets to call the shots.