After only a week, Peter Lattman’s new WSJ Law Blog is proving well worth reading, as reflected by his posts here and here on the politics involved in the initial meetings to select the creditors’ committee and its counsel in the Calpine Corp. chapter 11 case, which include the following observations:

Youíd think that a get-together of people owed money by Calpine would be a solemn affair, but it felt more Kiwanis Club than Creditors Club. Thatís because most of the people in the room werenít creditors; they were the lawyers, bankers, and consultants who make their livings off the carcasses of bankrupt companies like Calpine.
And this is one tight-knit group. After . . . 10 minutes of bland introductory remarks, they adjourned the meeting for two hours to select a committee. At that point a party broke out. The various advisors lingered, glad-handing and networking their way through the room. We even ran into a few hedge fund managers working the crowd, trying to handicap their investments.