More GM BigLaw Info Than Anyone Should Know

We’ve known for a while that this GM mess would involve a whole lot o’ lawyers, and it’s exceeding our wildest expectations. This is a bigger social event than the Bass – van der Woodsen wedding (pictured). There were reportedly 110 lawyers in the courtroom and more on the conference call for the first hearing.

(By the way, we can’t wait to see Bankruptcy Bill’s comedic take on the first-day hearings, so make sure you support that comic strip!)

Time for a roundup.

First up, a Weil Gotshal crew led by Stephen Karotkin and a Dewey & LeBoeuf crew led by former Weil-ite Marty Bienenstock are teaming up to serve as lead counsel for the debtor.

After the jump, more on their posses and the legions of other firms involved. (As is our wont, we focus solely on BigLaw)

The Debtor

Karotkin got to do the honor of signing the filing, but superlawyer Harvey Miller is holding Karotkin’s hand, and Joe Smolinsky is also getting top-line billing for the Weil team. We also just learned that Bienenstock came up with the “New GM/Old GM” structure “while on a ski slope back in March.” (Contrary to that article, though, GM isn’t the third-largest bankruptcy in history – it’s fourth, behind Lehman, WaMu, and WorldCom).

Cravath’s Bob Joffee and Philip Gelston are special counsel to GM’s board of directors. That means they’re handling a bunch of related but non-bankruptcy matters, including the GM Europe restructuring and the GMAC relationship/investment.

GM also is being advised by corporate/M&A partners Joseph Gromacki and Michael Wolf from Jenner & Block in Chicago and bankruptcy and reorganization chair Robert Weiss from Detroit’s Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn.

The Unsecured Creditors

This is a particularly interesting situation. Of the 15 members of the official committee of unsecured creditors, the interesting ones are (i.e., have retained major firms):

• Wilmington Trust, which is represented by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s business reorganization co-chair David Feldman and restructuring partner Matthew Williams (about which, more here, although things have changed since that article was written);
• the UAW, which is represented by Cleary Gottlieb’s Richard Lincer and David Gottlieb (not the one whose name is on the door) and a whole host of others; and
• the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), which is represented by WilmerHale (although Sonnenschein may have been or may in the future be on the case as well).

Wilmington Trust really spice things up. They’re the indenture trustee on the GM bonds. But the bondholders themselves aren’t on the committee. Instead, they’d rather avoid any fiduciary responsibility to the other unsecured creditors and are going it alone, with Andrew Rosenburg from Paul Weiss as counsel to that ad hoc committee.

Kramer Levin beat out Akin Gump, Chadbourne & Parke, Milbank, Morrison & Foerster, and Paul Weiss for the plum assignment (Milbank billed $12.1 million in three months in that role on the Lehman bankruptcy) as counsel to the committee. It’s an unbelievable double-double for the relatively small group, which got the same assignment on the Chrysler bankruptcy. According to AmLaw Daily, the team consists of: Kramer Levin restructuring cochairs Kenneth Eckstein and Thomas Moers Mayer, corporate governance cochair Kenneth Kopelman, corporate finance partner Thomas Molner, bankruptcy litigation partner P. Bradley O’Neill, and restructuring partners Amy Caton, Adam Rogoff, and Robert Schmidt.

Other Creditors

Deutsche Bank, which holds more than $4.4 billion in GM bonds, is being advised by Bingham McCutchen financial restructuring cochair Jeffrey Sabin. Auto-parts supplier Delphi is owed $110 million and has retained Skadden corporate restructuring partner Kayalyn Marafioti. US Steel, which is reportedly owed $10 million, has engaged Reed Smith commercial restructuring and bankruptcy partners Eric Schaffer and Kurt Gwynne.

Other Constituencies

Some GM dealers have turned to Douglas Jones, a former US Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama and current partner in Haskell Slaughter Young & Rediker. It’s not exactly clear what the legal basis is for the claims yet, but they’re “requesting [the trustee] set up a special committee to represent the interests of terminated dealers.” An “unofficial committee of GM dealers” (no idea whether they’re the same or overlapping or what) is represented by Orrick restructuring chair Roger Frankel and bankruptcy partner Richard Wyron.

The Treasury Department is being advised by

Cadwalader private equity group chair R. Ronald Hopkinson, M&A chair Louis Bevilacqua, finance partners Julian Chung and Steven Cohen, tax cochair Linda Swartz, litigation partner David Williams, financial restructuring special counsel Peter Friedman and Leslie Chervokas, corporate special counsel Peter Gyr, and associates Douglas Mintz, Zachary Smith, and James Langston.

I forgot Bevilacqua was nominally in charge of the group. Dennis Block must be too busy taking care of clients or not want to deal with the paperwork.

GMAC is represented by Schulte.

Third Parties

The asset sales have already begun. Shearman & Sterling advised China’s Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery (Tengzhong) on its purchase of GM’s Hummer brand. According to LegalWeek, “Detroit’s Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn took the lead for GM, with corporate partner Norman Beitner heading the team acting alongside GM’s internal legal function.”

Ford has retained Davis Polk’s Marshall Huebner to make sure nothing funny goes on. Peter Pantaleo of Simpson Thacher is keeping an eye on GM things for Citi.

Hell, even the judge has a BigLaw background (although that’s particularly not surprising in bankruptcy – most have). District Judge Robert Gerber is a former Fried Frank partner, having spent 30 years at the firm prior to taking the bench in 2000.

We’re thinking about putting all of this in a wiki, anyone interested in contributing/editing?

Related posts:

1. How Much BigLaw Does a GM Bankruptcy Take?
2. GM Asset Sales and Harvey Back on Top
3. Quick Shucks – 3/31/09
4. More GM Lawyers – Int’l Ed.
5. Bankruptcy Team Switches to Midwest Rival