Bankruptcy: Gregory Cross, Venable

When General Growth Properties, Inc., filed for bankruptcy in April, it set the commercial mortgage–backed securities world abuzz. First there was the sheer size of GGP, a real estate investment trust that was the nation’s second-largest mall operator. GGP, which owns such prized properties as Chicago’s Water Tower Place and Honolulu’s Ala Moana Center, had $27 billion in debt when it went into Chapter 11.