Brent Musburger (l) and Marty Bienenstock. Separated at birth?
He already knows there are people in the government who don’t like him, so maybe White & Case’s Tom Lauria (Tennessee BA ’82, JD ’86) isn’t being a conspiracy nut when he says he’s worried that his phone has been bugged or his taxes will be audited.
Those fears aren’t enough to stop him from railing against the government’s actions in the Chrysler bankruptcy.
After the jump, Lauria continues his fight and a blockbuster on where he started his career.
This has become a personal fight for Lauria, who got the feature treatment from the Miami Herald last week.
”There’s an expectation in the United States that the terms of [a] contract will be honored,” Lauria says. ‘This case presents a challenge to that principal. It basically says in times of perceived emergency that perhaps the government can step in and overwrite parties’ contractual rights. And I think that’s a very dangerous concept.”
The battle waged by Lauria earned him the wrath of those behind the Chrysler reorganization. A lawyer for President Barack Obama’s auto industry task force branded Lauria a ”terrorist,” while one of Chrysler’s restructuring advisors called him ridiculous, e-mails subpoenaed by Lauria show.
The fit Lauria, who jogs about five miles a day, concedes opposing the government in the Chrysler case has been a strain.
”It’s very hard for a person to stand up in the face of the pressure that was brought to bear here,” he says. He wonders aloud if his phone has been bugged or whether his tax returns will be audited.
”I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist — I’m not. But people are people,” he says.
As well know, despite Lauria’s efforts, he got run over by the Chrysler train. The government-backed plan plowed through objections and wailing. And it looks like GM might go the same way.
As we’ve seen in the Chrysler and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. cases, the powers of the Treasury trump the law of the Manhattan bankruptcy court. Terms of its $33.3 billion debtor-in-possession loan (of which Treasury itself is committing $24.2 billion) mandate that GM win court approval of the sale by July 10 and close the deal by Sept. 15. Also, Treasury, which will credit bid an estimated $48.7 billion in debt to acquire the “new GM,” is obviously the only entity with the financial wherewithal and inclination to buy GM out of bankruptcy.
So unless a group of bondholders brazen enough to force GM down the path to liquidation in the name of a higher recovery emerges, GM is well on its way to exiting bankruptcy without a fight.
Calling Thomas Lauria?
But really, the big piece of news is this, and it really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Lauria only lateralled into White & Case in 1996.
Prior to that, he was at Weil Gotshal in Dallas and Miami. Is there anyone who didn’t train at the knee of Harvey Miller? This guy is the Paul Brown of bankruptcy lawyers. Imagine if he had gone to Wachtell.
Off the top of our heads, the following bankruptcy lawyers have all done stints at Weil Gotshal and gone on to lead other firms’ practices:
- Deryck Palmer and John Rapisardi of Cadwalader;
- Bruce Zirinsky of Greenberg Traurig;
- Corinne Ball of Jones Day;
- Marty Bienenstock of Dewey Ballantine (who should be played by Brent Mussburger in any TV movie); and
- Lauria of White & Case.
Who else did we miss?
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