Banking Law

What's Good For The Sharks Is Good For America

A couple of weeks ago, I said that I thought the plaintiffs' attorneys in the recently settled class action litigation against the Veterans Administration over the theft of a lap top computer would "make millions." Yesterday, The Washington Post reported that the "millions" assumption was indeed correct.

Under the $20 million deal, lawyers for the veterans will receive up to $5.5 million for fees and costs, while roughly $1.4 million will be spent to notify millions of veterans and provide information about the settlement via advertisements in newspapers, magazines and a toll-free hot line.

As you'll recall, each veteran who can prove that if he or she "incurred out of pocket expenses for credit monitoring or physical symptoms of emotional distress," he or she will receive between $75 and $1500. I've asked it before and I'll ask it again: Is this a great country, or what?

In yet one more sign that this nation of the lawyers, by the lawyers, and for the lawyers shall not perish from the earth (as long as one lawyer and one solvent defendant remain), The Memphis Business Journal recently ran a piece detailing that though the TARP program may be a bust in terms of goosing the economy, it's been a godsend for the formation of "special practice groups" by law firms.

Securities Docket, an online trade journal for the securities industry, has tracked the proliferation of financial crisis practice groups and task forces since the fall. To date, the self-regulated list has grown to 32 national law firms. No Memphis law firms are represented.

Dude! If you're walkin' in Memphis, walkin' with your feet ten feet off of Beale, if you're walkin' in Memphis, and you don't know if you really feel the way you feel, then it's probably because you haven't created a financial crisis practice group. Get you one of those bad boys and you'll know how you really feel. You'll be feelin' like singing Hallelujah!

We've been a big fan of special practice groups, linked first to subprime and now to the bailout, for some time now. Every law firm should have one. In fact, when private capital finally heeds Treasury's siren call and comes pouring in to buy up "distressed assets," we look forward to the first "Bottom Feeders Feeding Frenzy Practice Group" bursting forth from a giant law firm like Athena from the head of Zeus.

Full post as published by Bank Lawyers Blog on February 11, 2009 (boomark / email).