Good day and welcome to WSJ Pro Bankruptcy's Daily Briefing. It's Tuesday, Nov. 23. Here's what you need to know: New York's busiest bankruptcy court adopted random case assignments, changing rules that had let some companies steer chapter 11 cases to a preferred judge. And the judge overseeing Mallinckrodt's chapter 11 case wouldn't order an examiner's probe into thousands of ballots on the drugmaker's restructuring plan.

New York bankruptcy court to randomly assign large chapter 11s. New York’s most active court for corporate restructurings said that large chapter 11 cases would be assigned to judges at random, a change to venue rules that let companies steer bankruptcies in New York to a single judge.

In addition to Manhattan, the Southern District has a courthouse roughly 30 miles north in the city of White Plains, N.Y. Until a rule change during the Covid-19 pandemic, chapter 11 cases filed in White Plains were automatically transferred to Judge Robert Drain, the only bankruptcy jurist sitting there. That set White Plains apart from other popular bankruptcy venues such as Delaware, where cases are randomly assigned to one of several judges.

Mallinckrodt drug purchasers denied probe of chapter 11 asbestos votes. A creditor group alleging that bankrupt drugmaker Mallinckrodt PLC gouged on drug prices failed to win the appointment of an examiner to investigate chapter 11 claims and votes related to asbestos exposure.

The judge overseeing Mallinckrodt's case declined to appoint an examiner to look into ballots cast on the company's chapter 11 exit plan on behalf of thousands of asbestos-injury victims represented by personal injury lawyer Thomas Bevan and other law firms.

Oaktree closes its largest-ever credit fund. Oaktree Capital Management LP has closed its largest fund to date, gathering $15.9 billion to invest in troubled industries and credit-constrained companies.

This year, Oaktree rebranded its flagship strategy to de-emphasize the focus on distressed investing. Now called “global opportunities” rather “distressed opportunities,” the strategy takes three main approaches: providing capital to credit-constrained companies, investing in out-of-favor industries and backing management groups to invest in undervalued assets, Oaktree said.

Biden to nominate Jerome Powell for second term as Fed chair. President Biden said he would nominate Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to a second term leading the central bank, opting for continuity in U.S. economic policy despite pushback from some Democrats who wanted someone tougher on bank regulations and climate change. The decision marks the first step in a likely remake of the central bank’s Board of Governors. Mr. Powell is expected to skate through confirmation with bipartisan support after several Senate Republicans expressed support.

Market-based inflation expectations fell, as investors reaffirmed bets that the central bank will fight inflation by raising interest rates in the coming years.

Bankruptcy judge balks at ordering J&J talc claimants to negotiate. A bankruptcy judge indicated he wouldn't order cancer victims into mediation with Johnson & Johnson over its talc products until he decides if the company acted properly by placing its talc-related liabilities in chapter 11.

Judge Michael B. Kaplan said at a hearing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Trenton, N.J. that ordering mediation won't be productive when personal-injury claimants have said they want the chapter 11 case thrown out.

"I'd rather have their hearts and soul in mediation before we go down that path," the judge said. If the chapter 11 case isn't dismissed, mediation would then be appropriate, he said.

Monday's hearing was the first since the bankruptcy case was transferred to Trenton from Charlotte, J&J's preferred venue. The company hopes to use chapter 11 tools to drive a settlement of pending and future claims that talc-based baby powder caused ovarian cancer and mesothelioma, which J&J denies. — Andrew Scurria

Theranos founder recounts the 'big idea.' Elizabeth Holmes took jurors into the Theranos Inc. lab Monday during testimony at her criminal-fraud trial, describing ways the startup sought to reduce errors in lab testing and miniaturize traditionally bulky blood-testing machines. Her narrative is an effort to strike back at prosecutors’ allegations that she knew Theranos’s blood-testing technology was inaccurate and unreliable when she solicited hundreds of millions of dollars from investors

Israeli technology firm NSO Group is facing a growing risk of default on around $500 million of debt amid a cash burn that’s expected to continue this year after new export restrictions from the U.S., according to Moody’s Investors Service. (Bloomberg)

Bruce Matson, the former chief legal officer at now-defunct law firm LeClairRyan, has been sentenced to 44 months in prison after pleading guilty in July to obstructing a federal probe. (Reuters)

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