The Meltdown Awards: Law Firm Winners and Losers

Though the dust has far from settled, it’s time for ATL to hand out some awards to the law firms and other participants that have done well for themselves, or wet the bed, as Wall Street runs with blood.

The Grim Reaper Award: Weil Gotshal & Manges.

Weil will be Lehman’s bankruptcy counsel, and they’ve been in talks with AIG. It’s not Weil’s fault that other people’s losses are Weil’s immeasurable gains. When Weil is tapping you on the shoulder, your time is almost up.

The “Doesn’t Anybody Have Any Missiles Left?” Award: Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.

Bear? Gone. Lehman? Going. Does this firm have any clients left? Or associates left?

The People Under the Stairs Award: Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

We echo our commenters in asking, “Where the heck is Skadden in all this?” Good question. Better question: which Skadden partner is the point person on BoA business and how many people have rented space under his or her desk in the past 48 hours?

Sponsored

The K-Y Jelly Award: Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

Can anything happen in this economy without the lube provided by Wachtell? Don Fanucci didn’t wet his beak this much.

The Melting ceremony continues after the break.


The Meteor Shower Award: Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.

As Lehman crashes and burns, Simpson Thacher can only hope that as many of the individual deal teams remain together as possible. If Lehman deal teams stay together, wherever they go Simpson should still get some of that work based on loyalty and tradition. If they break apart in a hail of fire and death, there might not be many recognizable pieces left for Simpson to pick up.

Sponsored

The Poop Bag Award: Litigators, Everywhere.

Because the lawsuits are coming (subscription). Oh yes. Every time the corporate people defecate on the Street, litigators have to run around cleaning up the mess. Nice work if you can get it. But there are certain litigators that shouldn’t expect to be showering any time soon.

The Irrelevant Award: President George W. Bush

As our friends at Dealbreaker have pointed out, it might be a good thing to have a powerless President working on his “Center for Kids Who Can’t Read Good and Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too,” just at the moment. Still, somebody needs to get that man a fiddle!

The Pimp of The Year Award: Shearman & Sterling.

Shearman is representing their longtime clients Merrill Lynch on their side of the BoA/Merrill merger. After that? Who knows. But getting $50 billion for a washed up “asset” like Merrill is certainly praiseworthy. Cherish those fees Shearman, you don’t want to end up like Fly Guy.

When Wall Street Goes, Where Goes the Legal Work? [WSJ Law Blog]

Corporate Law Firms See Dark Days Ahead [Law.com (subscription)]

Earlier: A Silver Lining to the Wall Street Cloud: More Work for Lawyers (at Shearman, Sullivan, Wachtell, Weil, etc.)