Record Number of Vultures Circling Wall Street: Devil's Advocate to the Rescue?
These 21st Century financial vultures are clever, they are.
They've ganged up with a large pack of rabid hyenas prowling Wall Street. The hyenas drag down the victim and start munching away
The vultures don't wait until the last gasp of breath to swoop in, they start feasting on living flesh and take large tasty bites out of pension plans, stockholder funds and mortgage accounts.
Mmmmmm... good.
Law firm that advised the banks into the MBS mess now picked to guide banks out.
Recognize these firms: AIG; Wachovia, Lehman Bros, Travelers, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Blackstone Group and UBS Warburg? All firms advised by the law firm of Simpson, Thacher and Bartlett, LLP.
Why does all of this remind me of that law firm in that Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino movie, "The Devil's Advocate?"
From the original story US summons banks to meeting on rescue plan
Over the weekend, Paulson called the heads of the five biggest U.S. banks to come to Washington for face-to-face talks about the rescue plan, according to people briefed on the matter. They were not authorized to speak publicly because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack, Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit, JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon, and Bank of America Corp. CEO Kenneth Lewis were all asked to attend. There was some speculation that Paulson might have expanded the invitation to at least three other CEOs from various regional banks, the people said.
After those consultations, Kashkari said Treasury had chosen Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett LLP to move forward to help the government structure the stock purchase program.
Kashkari announced that investment consultancy Ennis Knupp & Associates had been chosen as the private firm that will help Treasury review proposals from asset management companies. He said that 70 companies had made bids to become the master custodian firm and that a final selection of the winning firm would be announced by Tuesday.
He said more than 100 companies had submitted bids to become one of the five to 10 firms that will operate the program to buy and manage the bad assets from financial firms.
The original story appears to have a typo, as there is no Simpson, Thatcher and Bartlett, but there is a Simpson, Thacher and Bartlett LLP.
What kind of services do they provide?
The Firm provides a full array of legal services to commercial banks, investment banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions, companies in the food and drug industries, media and entertainment companies, telecommunications companies, transportation companies, personal service and consulting firms, public utilities, not-for-profit organizations and individuals. The Firm has handled transactions involving J.P. Morgan Chase, The Blackstone Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Lehman Brothers, Travelers, Goldman Sachs, Wachovia, American Reinsurance, AIG, Wyeth, Vivendi Universal, Time Warner, NBC, Ford Motor Company, Northwest Airlines, Accenture, and American Electric Power. Our Corporate Department provides advice domestically and internationally with respect to capital markets transactions and securities regulation, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, bank lending and bank regulation, leasing and project finance, structured finance and investment management
What kind of transactions?
Our banking practice has handled transactions involving JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers, CIBC, Wachovia and UBS/Warburg, as well as matters for our exceptional base of financial sponsor and other corporate relationship. Particular areas of emphasis include leveraged finance, acquisition finance, project and energy finance, financial institution (including hedge fund and cdo) lending, sports financing and media and entertainment financing.
The bankruptcy and creditors’ rights practice group has handled transactions on behalf of ABN Amro, Bear Stearns, The Blackstone Group, Citigroup, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, Evercore Partners, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, Perry Capital, The Quadrangle Group, TD Securities and Wachovia Securities. We have also served a variety of senior lenders in project finance workouts in the United States and abroad, including Banque Paribas, Toronto Dominion, Lehman Brothers, Dresdner Bank 2nd, Union Bank and LTCB.
