Bankruptcy or Not, Detroit Will Say Goodbye to Its Emergency Manager

Mayor Mike Duggan’s office said Thursday he won’t support extending Kevyn Orr’s time as the city’s emergency manager or keeping on his former law firm, Jones Day, if Detroit’s bankruptcy extends beyond Orr’s expected exit date in late September.

 

The issue arose after U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes questioned Jones Day lawyers during a hearing Thursday, asking what impact a delay in the schedule of the bankruptcy case would have on the high-priced law firm the city hired.

 

Lawyers for Detroit’s financial creditors and for Oakland and Macomb counties tried Thursday to convince Rhodes to delay the case by a month because city lawyers aren’t releasing critical documents quickly enough to meet ambitious timetables for this summer’s confirmation trial on the plan to exit the nation’s largest-ever municipal bankruptcy.