Legal News

The GM Bankruptcy, The First Day Legal Edition

By Ashby Jones

It’s only day 2 of the GM bankruptcy, and already barrels upon barrels of ink have been spilled on the situation. You could practically spend all day reading coverage of the company’s storied history, why GM failed and where we go from here.

But for now, let’s hit the legal highlights.

The Lawyers: Of course, the big name on the docket belongs to Weil Gotshal’s Harvey Miller who, along with fellow partners, Joseph Smolinsky and Stephen Karotkin, are serving as debtor counsel to GM. Former Weil standout and current Dewey & Leboeuf partner Martin Bienenstock has also logged some serious hours helping the company prepare for its turnaround, reports the American Lawyer.

But the list of lawyers doesn’t stop there; not by a longshot. A host of Cadwalader lawyers, including private-equity group chair Ronald Hopkinson, restructuring co-chair John Rapisardi and M&A chair Louis Bevilacqua are representing the Treasury Department. Lawyers from Cravath, including Bob Joffe and M&A Practice Chair Philip Gelston are repping the GM Board. Lawyers from Cleary Gottlieb are representing the UAW, while lawyers from Orrick Herrington are working for an unofficial committee of GM dealers. For a comprehensive list of who’s doing what, check out this post over at AmLaw Daily.

The Judge: As we told you yesterday, running the show down in lower Manhattan is bankruptcy judge Robert Gerber, a 30-year veteran of Fried, Frank. According to this NYT story, Gerber (Rutgers, Columbia Law) “sometimes still runs his courtroom as if he was billing by the hour, on occasion producing a lengthy opinion the morning after a marathon, late-night hearing.” Adds David M. Friedman, a partner at Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman, which represented the creditors' committee in the bankruptcy case of Adelphia, the cable company. "He wants to focus on the issues and he wants to get the issues briefed, argued and then get to work. He will work as hard as he has to to rule in a timely fashion." Click here for AmLaw Daily’s story on Judge Gerber as well.

Day One: So what happened in Judge Gerber’s courtroom on Day 1? For the most part, it received filings. Lots of filings. Click here for the WSJ’s Jeffrey McCracken on those; here for the New York Law Journal’s report on the so-called “first-day hearings,” which didn’t get rolling until the late afternoon. The AmLaw Daily’s Julie Triedman writes that “crankiness” was the emotion of the day. According to the NYLJ:

About 110 lawyers filled the benches and lined the walls in a stifling hot courtroom before Southern District Bankruptcy Judge Robert E. Gerber yesterday afternoon to get the ball rolling . . . Reporters crowded into overflow rooms.

Harvey Miller of Weil Gotshal & Manges, which represents GM, urged approval of $15 billion in interim financing for GM and of procedures to conduct a sale.

He asked for the court’s indulgence, noting that his presentation might be “a little ragged. A lot of people have been up for an extended period of time,” he said.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on June 02, 2009 (boomark / email).