Corinthian students get special committee in bankruptcy case

Corinthian College students will be able to represent their own interest in the school’s bankruptcy case.

Attorneys representing an ad hoc group of students said the Justice Department’s U.S. Trustee Program has granted their request to form a special committee. 

The for-profit school closed 28 campuses late last month, leaving 16,000 students in the lurch, and filed for bankruptcy on May 4. The collapse comes after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and at least 20 state attorneys general, including California and Illinois, sued the school for making false and misleading advertisements to entice students to enroll and take out pricey loans to cover the cost. 

{mosads}The students’ attorneys — from the Public Counsel Law Center, Robins Kaplan LLP, and Strumwasser & Woocher LLP — said the seldom-granted request is a victory for the estimated 500,000 students impacted by Corinthian’s collapse, giving them meaningful participation in the bankruptcy process.

“Today’s action is a very promising development, and we achieved an important first step toward giving each and every student a voice,” Scott Gautier, a bankruptcy attorney with Robins Kaplan LLP, said in a news release earlier this week. “We are grateful to the Office of the United States Trustee for acting quickly to address the needs of this critical constituency.”

Students who have already been organizing and advocating for themselves will serve on the committee and former students will have the opportunity to apply, but the Office of the United States Trustee has sole discretion in appointing all committee members.