Jack Stutman; Veteran Bankruptcy Lawyer

Jack Stutman, 86, pioneering bankruptcy lawyer who headed the Los Angeles firm often called “the Cadillac of bankruptcy firms.” Stutman, who grew up in Manchester, N.H., earned undergraduate and law degrees at Harvard and was a paratroop captain in Europe during World War II, fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. During the postwar occupation, Stutman acted as mayor of a French town. He began his legal career in entertainment law, but discovered a flair for bankruptcy statutes when he sued several bankrupt New York furriers for Chemical Bank of New York. Stutman attributed his bankruptcy career to the fact that his father had gone bankrupt on the eve of the Depression. In 1947, when bankruptcy law was hardly considered respectable, let alone fashionable, Stutman launched what became Stutman, Treister & Glatt, which built a stable of two-dozen top-notch attorneys and a national reputation. Los Angeles’ oldest and largest firms handed them cases, knowing Stutman would return the clients once he had solved their bankruptcy problems. Stutman became known for his success in reorganizing businesses and assembling successful reorganization plans. He untangled the maze of businesses in C. Arnholt Smith’s infamous Westgate California Corp., and handled the bankruptcies of the Wickes Cos., Sambo’s Restaurants and Itel Corp. Stutman was on the board of governors of the State Bar of California, the board of trustees of the Constitutional Rights Foundation and was a president of the Los Angeles County Bar Foundation. He helped modernize federal bankruptcy laws and co-authored two educational plays, “Chapter X 1/2 or Bust” and “Anatomy of a Bankruptcy,” which was shown for many years at swearing-in ceremonies for lawyers newly admitted to the bar. A gourmet who belonged to the food and wine organization Chevalier du Tastevin, Stutman proudly accepted one unusual fee from a penniless restaurateur he aided. The client named a sandwich the “Gallant Jack.” On Sept. 19 in Los Angeles.