Looks like the fight is over folks......

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Where is Tom Lauria of White and Case in GM fight?

From an article published June 10, 2009 following the denial of the Supreme Court to hear the merits of the Chrysler-Fiat sale. Tom Lauria was the spearhead for the dissident bondholders of Chrysler and was thought to play a major role in the dissident bondholders in the GM Bankruptcy. With 45% of the $27.2 billion rejecting the GM/Government bankruptcy package Mr. Lauria will have a large pool of dissent clients from which to choose to represent. So why haven't we heard from Mr. Lauria as of yet concerning the GM Bankruptcy case? My off the wall guess is he is shopping for the best dissident bondholder client(s), whether institutional or non-institutional, with the most compelling merits of their case. I think we will know by 5 PM Friday, June 19th when the objections to the 363 Sale of the GM assets are due to be filed with the Bankruptcy court. Let's wait and see.....

Some excerpts from the WSJ article of June 10.....

"A hodgepodge of GM bondholders have asked him to represent them in a challenge to GM’s bankruptcy filing."

"As for Lauria, he’s chagrined by more than just the outcome of the Chrysler/Fiat situation. He says his experiences of the last month “cause me to worry that there is something very wrong with the system,” and he says he wonders “whether our judiciary is today able to fulfill its constitutional mission to ensure that the rule of law prevails — particularly in the face of perceived crisis."

See the article at:
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/06/10/the-lawyer-of-the-hour-white-cases-overly-tenacious-tom-lauria/

I can't imagine Mr. Lauria not participating in the GM Bankruptcy fight, as this presents a unique opportunity to bring the merits of a strong case against the GM/Task force actions in front of the Supreme Court should the lower courts not redistribute the ownership of the new GM based on existing bankruptcy law. Just a thought.....

3 comments:

  1. I understand that the U.S.Trustee appointed Wilmington Trust Company to the statutory Unsecured Creditors Committee, which is charged with representing all unsecured creditors in GM's bankruptcy proceedings (including unsecured bondholders).

    Since Wilmington Trust Company as "Indentured Trustee" represents the rights and responsibilities of the bondholders, they have hired the Gibson,Dunn, & Crutcher law firm. To date no one has objected to GM's 363 asset sale.

    Wilmington Trust Co spokesperson was unable to provide any more information and suggests bondholders contact these websites.

    www.wilmingtontrust.com

    http://www.gm.com/restructuring/docs/investors.pdf

    I continue to wait for Tom Luria's office to return my telephone calls, and am getting cocerned that dissident small bondholders have no voice.

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  2. Not sure if Mr. Lauria will come to the party. Lawyers typically don't volunteer to represent clients for altruistic reasons. Cash is the preferred motivator. The individual investors don't have the money to hire representation and institutions don't want to be vilified by the Administration.

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  3. Thank you for the research on the unsecured representation in the GM Bankruptcy. I too have been watching the document filings as they come through and have not seen any legal challenges to the 363 Sale as of noon, June 16th. Although it is interesting if you see documents stating “Objection” in a letter form they are from individuals objecting to the 363 Sale. Some are from individual GM Bondholders others are retried GM salary workers that have had their retirement benefits cut. It appears current UAW at GM gave up very little in the negotiations-- its coming out of the retirees pockets. Some of the letters are heart breaking. If I get some more time I plan to have a post with the links to individual letters filed with accessible links so folks can see the personal and individual impact of the governments plan for GM.

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