One of the new provisions in the bankruptcy law set to go into effect in October deals with conflicts of interest as related to investment bankers. The rules have been watered down so that it is easier for the large investment banking firms to land bankruptcy engagements. In the past there were conflicts if the institution had been involved in the issuance of stock for a company such that it would have been barred from the bankruptcy engagement, not so any more. "Under the old bankruptcy code, a firm could not be considered disinterested if it had served as an investment banker for the any of the debtor's outstanding securities, or if it served as an underwriter for any security issued in three years prior to its bankruptcy filing. That essentially meant that if a firm had taken a company public in 1995 and that business went bankrupt in 2005, it could not act as an adviser to the company if it was still public since it had served as an underwriter for its outstanding shares. ..." Here is a link to the rest of this interesting article found in Corporate Financing Weekly which addresses these changes. http://www.corporatefinancingweek.com/default.asp?page=1&SID=517916&ISS=16851 Mike