One of its partners, financial restructuring and bankruptcy specialist Kevyn Orr, has taken on the role of emergency manager of the failed city of Detroit. In the role since March, he will set an influential precedent for other city collapses in the way he ranks the entitlements of creditors. On the advice of both his Jones Day colleagues and the New York investment bank Miller Buckfire, he plans to treat some of the so-called general obligation debt-holders as unsecured creditors. This has already resulted in a court challenge from them

Fast-moving

Events will move fast in Detroit whose debts amount to $18 billion - as Orr's appointment will finish at the end of December 2014. He is currently working on a report on expenses which is due to be submitted in September. He played a main role in the Chrysler bankruptcy of 2009 and has also worked for the Federal Insurance Corporation and the Resolution Trust Corporation.