It is 11:40 p.m. on a Sunday. Your lawyers expect to file the petitions at 6 a.m. Eastern, the claims agent has a case website ready to switch on, and someone in the war room just asked who has the final draft of the Chapter 11 press release. You realize three people have three different versions, and the one the CFO likes says “temporary financial reorganization” twice and never mentions payroll.
This guide is for that night. It covers the wording conventions that bankruptcy lawyers, restructuring bankers and financial reporters expect, the order in which you brief the people who matter, and a template you can adapt. I am not a lawyer, and nothing here replaces your restructuring counsel. Every sentence in the final release needs their sign-off, because statements made on filing day can show up later in court.
What the release has to do in its first 50 words
A Chapter 11 press release has one job in its lead paragraph: tell a frightened reader that the business is still open, still paying people, and has a plan. Everything else is supporting detail.
The standard lead contains five facts. The company filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code. It filed in a named court (the Southern District of Texas, the District of Delaware and the District of New Jersey see a large share of big cases). It has secured, or expects to secure, a specific amount of debtor-in-possession financing. It is using the process for a stated purpose, such as reducing debt, completing a sale, or closing a set of locations. And operations continue in the ordinary course.
That last phrase carries a lot of weight. “Stores remain open,” “flights continue as scheduled,” “customers can continue to place orders” are the words a reporter will quote, and they are the words a customer service team will repeat four hundred times that day. Put them in the first or second sentence.
Look at how restaurant chains and retailers handled filings over the last few years. Red Lobster’s May 2024 filing and Joann’s January 2025 filing both drew heavy national coverage, and the first thing most outlets reported after the filing itself was whether locations were staying open. Your release determines what that second sentence of every news story says.
The Four Audiences Order
Filing day goes wrong when a company treats the press release as the first communication. It should be the fifth. I use a sequence I call the Four Audiences Order, and it runs in this order for a reason: each group hears the news from you before they can hear it from the group after them.
First, employees. A short internal note or a live all-hands call goes out the moment the petitions are filed. It states that wages and benefits continue (assuming your first-day motions ask the court to approve that, which they almost always do), tells managers what to say to customers, and gives a single internal contact for questions.
Second, critical vendors and partners. Your top suppliers, landlords and logistics partners should get a call or a personal email within the first hour. Vendors decide on filing day whether to keep shipping, and a vendor who reads about your case on a trade site before hearing from you is the vendor who demands cash in advance.
Third, customers. For a consumer business this means an email, a site banner and an FAQ page that says gift cards, loyalty points, returns and warranties are being honored, if the court motions request that. For a B2B company it means account managers calling top accounts with a one-page script.
Fourth, lenders, investors and creditors. Most of them already know, because many were part of negotiating the restructuring support agreement. The claims agent website handles the rest, with case documents, claim forms and a hotline.
Only then does the press release cross the wire. In practice, steps one through four happen in a ninety-minute window, and the release goes out at the end of it. The order matters more than the speed.
What do reporters look for in a bankruptcy filing?
Business reporters covering a filing have a checklist in their heads, and the release should answer it before they have to dig through the first-day declaration on the docket. They want the size of the DIP loan and who is providing it. They want to know whether there is a restructuring support agreement with lenders, and what percentage of debt has signed on. They want to know whether there is a stalking horse bidder if this is a sale case. They want the number of locations closing, if any. And they want the court, the case number and the judge, which the claims agent website will list.
If you do not give them these facts, they will find them in the filings and report them with less context than you could have supplied. A release that says “the company has secured a commitment for $125 million in DIP financing from its existing lenders” lets the reporter move on to your strategy. A release that says “the company has secured significant financing” sends the reporter to the docket and costs you a paragraph of framing.
The other thing reporters look for is evasion. Releases that never use the words “Chapter 11” until the fourth paragraph, or that describe the filing as a “strategic step,” get quoted in a tone you will not enjoy. Plain language reads as confidence.
Wording that works, and wording that backfires
Some phrases have become standard because they are accurate and calming. “Filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11” is precise. “Court-supervised process” explains the mechanics to a non-specialist. “In the ordinary course” signals that daily business continues. “Has filed a series of customary first day motions” tells vendors and employees that the company has asked the court for permission to keep paying them, without promising a ruling the judge has not made yet.
That last point deserves care. Until the court approves first-day relief, the company cannot promise that it will pay pre-petition vendor invoices or that every customer program survives. Good releases say the company “has filed motions seeking authority to” continue paying wages, honor customer programs, and pay vendors for goods and services received after the filing date. Your counsel will insist on that phrasing, and they are right to.
The phrases that backfire are the ones that overclaim. “Business as usual” sounds dismissive to a vendor who is owed money. “Emerge stronger than ever” reads as spin to a reporter who has seen the same line in fifty releases. “No impact on customers” is a promise you cannot keep if stores are closing. And “temporary” is a word to use only if your plan includes a timeline you can defend, such as a prepackaged plan expected to be confirmed in sixty days.
A Chapter 11 press release template you can adapt
Use this as a skeleton and hand it to counsel early. Bracketed text is yours to fill.
[Company] Takes Action to [Strengthen Balance Sheet / Complete Sale / Position Business for the Future] Through Court-Supervised Process
Secures $[X] Million Debtor-in-Possession Financing Commitment from [Lenders]
[Stores / Operations / Service] Continue in the Ordinary Course
[CITY], [Date] [Company] (“[Short Name]” or “the Company”) today announced that it and certain of its subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the [District]. The Company intends to use the process to [reduce its debt by approximately $X / complete a sale of substantially all of its assets / close approximately X underperforming locations]. [Short Name] [stores / facilities / services] remain open and operating in the ordinary course.
The Company has received a commitment for $[X] million in debtor-in-possession financing from [lenders], which, subject to court approval, together with cash generated from ongoing operations, is expected to provide sufficient liquidity to support the business during the process.
“[CEO quote, three or four sentences: why now, what this achieves, gratitude to employees and partners, commitment to customers.],” said [Name], [Title] of [Company].
[Short Name] has filed a series of customary motions with the Court seeking authority to continue paying employee wages and benefits, honor customer programs, and pay vendors and suppliers in full for goods and services provided on or after the filing date.
Additional information is available at [restructuring website]. Court filings and other information related to the court-supervised process are available at [claims agent URL] or by calling [hotline].
[Advisors paragraph: legal counsel, financial advisor, investment banker.]
About [Company]: [Standard boilerplate.]
Forward-Looking Statements: [Counsel-drafted language.]
Notice what the template does not contain: adjectives about the market, blame for the situation beyond one sentence in the CEO quote, and any promise about the outcome of court rulings.
The filing-day package around the release
A press release on its own is not enough. Reporters, employees and customers will want more detail than one page can hold, so the release should point to a package that is live the moment it crosses the wire.
That package often includes a restructuring website (often a simple page on the company domain) with plain-language FAQs for each audience, the claims agent site with the docket, a one-page employee FAQ, a vendor letter, a customer email, and a short holding statement for social media. Your customer service team needs a script that matches the release word for word. Your social media manager needs approved replies for the twenty questions you can predict, starting with “are you closing?” and “is my gift card still good?”
Public companies also need the 8-K. Item 1.03 requires disclosure of a bankruptcy filing within four business days, and most companies file it the same day with the release attached as Exhibit 99.1. Any difference between the release and the 8-K becomes a story of its own.
After the wire: the next 72 hours
Expect a second news cycle when the first-day hearing happens, often within a day or two of filing. That is when the judge rules on the interim DIP financing and the wage and vendor motions. Prepare a short follow-up release for that hearing. “Court approves first day motions” is a dull headline, but it is the one your vendors and employees are waiting to read, and it lets you repeat that operations continue with the court’s backing.
Watch coverage hour by hour during these three days and correct factual errors fast, through a direct and polite note to the reporter with the source document attached. Do not argue tone. Fix facts.
In short: lead with operations continuing, name the court and the DIP amount, brief employees, vendors, customers and creditors in that order before the wire, phrase every promise as a motion the court has not yet approved, and have the full package live before the first reporter calls.