In this issue: Editors' Introduction; Top 10; Recognition; In the Community; and Bankruptcy & Restructuring Team.

2011 has ushered in a whirlwind of insolvency-related developments, prompting a host of new concerns by bankruptcy courts, practitioners, and a number of other parties affected by the bankruptcy process. These parties are wide-ranging, including secured lenders, debt traders, acquirors of distressed assets and businesses, and even potential targets of litigation by trustees or debtors.

On the regulatory side, 2011 has also marked the robust infancy of the Dodd-Frank Act, a mammoth piece of legislation affecting an array of systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs), both domestic and foreign. SIFIs will soon be providing bank regulators with comprehensive contingency plans detailing their survival strategy in the event of material distress. Interestingly, the working model for these plans, or “living wills,” is none other than the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.