On the morning of June 14, 2007, Bradley Law Office in Fort Lauderdale filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition with the federal government.
Bradley Law Offices filed for bankruptcy protection for the first time since 2001.
A decade later, the company’s bankruptcy was a pivotal moment in the nation’s financial crisis, and it’s still going strong today.
In 2007, when Bradley Law was founded, the firm faced unprecedented pressure to cut costs and slash costs across its entire business.
The company’s revenues had been dropping steadily, as companies around the world scrambled to adapt to the rapidly changing marketplace.
“The company was doing poorly,” says David Sorenson, an accounting professor at the University of Maryland, College Park.
“We had to make cuts, and we made cuts and cuts and then some.”
In the early days, the bankruptcy petition was an emergency filing.
Bradley had filed bankruptcy protection in January 2007.
By the time the filing was completed, the federal bankruptcy court had approved the filing, but not the bankruptcy itself.
After years of negotiations with the U.S. Department of Justice, Bradley had been granted the right to pursue Chapter 11.
As a result, Bradley filed the bankruptcy, and the rest is history.
The following year, the US government granted Bradley a $12 billion federal bailout.
Bradley was able to refinance its debts to banks and credit unions, and was able pay back all of its loans.
In October of 2009, the United States Government gave the firm a $2 billion lifeline through the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
But things got worse.
On June 25, 2010, the day after the government had extended its rescue, a major financial crisis hit the country.
“In the wake of the financial crisis and the recession, Bradley started to lose money, and they started to cut back on their services,” Sorensson says.
“They were very, very slow to respond to the emergency.”
As a company that was already struggling, Bradley needed to do something quick to help its clients.
The bankruptcy petition “was the most urgent thing I’d heard,” Sorensons wife, Jennifer, recalls.
“It was a pretty important step.”
The bankruptcy filing was an act of self-sacrifice.
After three years of trying to get the company back on its feet, Bradley was facing a devastating situation.
The filing was a significant step toward getting the bankruptcy protection they needed to survive.
In January, 2011, Bradley took a step that would change the way it would operate for the rest of its life.
After months of negotiation with the government, Bradley agreed to make a $3 billion contribution to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which Congress passed in December of 2009.
That investment would give Bradley a big chunk of the federal bailout funds, and help the company survive a major downturn in the U:S.
economy.
“When we got the money, I think we could have been bankrupt within the first month of January,” says Brad Sorensen, “but we could still have been doing well.”
The American Recovery & Reinvestments Act: A New Way to Help the Financial Crisis In the wake the financial collapse, Congress approved ARRA in December 2009.
ARRA funds were supposed to be used to provide emergency relief to the U.:S.
government and the unemployed, as well as the struggling economy.
The law’s goal was to help workers struggling in the recession by helping them avoid bankruptcy, while also making it easier for companies to survive financially.
The money was intended to cover unemployment insurance payments for workers, but the Obama Administration also agreed to give $4.4 billion to companies that were in trouble and wanted to keep their workers from being forced to take on too much debt.
This money, called a Section 8 loan, was supposed to help companies that had to borrow against their business assets.
Companies that borrowed against their own assets would not have to pay back the loan, but their employees would still be eligible for unemployment benefits.
By helping businesses recover, ARRA was supposed and would be a huge boon to the economy.
In fact, it would have helped almost every industry in America, including the auto industry, which had been devastated by the financial crash.
The Obama Administration has since made ARRA a key part of its economic recovery plan.
“One of the great benefits of ARRA is that it has enabled us to actually be able to bring some jobs back to our communities,” President Barack Obama said at a signing ceremony in Washington, D.C., in April, 2011.
“And as we’ve seen, this was not just a short-term benefit for companies.
These jobs have been here for decades.”
But the bailout plan did not last long.
On May 2, 2010—the same day as the filing of the bankruptcy—a new financial crisis struck.
With the financial meltdown deep in the rearview mirror, the government stopped paying attention to ARRA and the Section 8 loans it was supposed in its recovery efforts. Instead