We were far from the first to point out that Heller Ehrman was teetering on the brink and that the orderly dissolution it hoped to go through outside bankruptcy was unlikely. Greenberg Traurig is debtor’s co-counsel with a firm I’ve never heard of.
AmLaw Daily is reporting that Heller has, in fact, been forced to file under Chapter XI. The final straws were the landlord writ we wrote about earlier and the firm’s two main lenders’ refusal to renegotiate some long-term debt. We can understand Citi ’s refusal – things are a mess over there and they have to hold on to every penny they can. Bank of America is the other main lender, and they’ve been weathering the storm better than most.
Interesting factoid: Bank of America was founded in San Francisco in 1904 as Bank of Italy. The name wasn’t changed until the 1920s.
Update: A commenter on the previous post informs us that the filings are available at http://netdockets.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/heller-ehrman-files-for-bankruptcy-in-san-francisco/ and http://netdockets.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/heller-ehrman-files-first-day-pleadings/
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Who is noone?
A guy with whom I went to grammar school. He paid attention in class that day; I obviously didn’t.