Jones Day lawyer is Detroit's new emergency financial manager
Jones Day restructuring partner Kevyn Orr has a new job that is expected to last about 18 months, if he succeeds.
Orr was appointed on Thursday to be Detroit’s new emergency financial manager, report the Am Law Daily, Bloomberg News and the New York Times. Orr, 54, told reporters that he is ready to tackle Detroit’s problems, including $14 billion in long-term debt and a $327 million deficit last year.
“I undertake a job that needs to be done, that has a fuse on it, and if I do a good job, I get fired,” Orr said in remarks covered by Bloomberg. “Can I get the job done? I am highly motivated. I am all in.”
Orr said he will resign from Jones Day, which has been hired as Detroit’s restructuring counsel. Orr, who worked on Chrysler’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy, said it’s not certain the city will file for Chapter 9 protection. But he did call his new job “the Olympics of restructuring,” according to the Times and the Am Law Daily.
A revised state law will give Orr the authority to change labor contracts and sell city assets.
