In the driver's seat, Bloomberg today reports things were not that bad, (although "driving visibility" for a time apparently may have been impeded); but that's part of what you get paid to put up with - and things work out okay if you patiently and steadfastly Steer the Course, as steadily and as long as time and circumstance permits:
Lehman Brothers Pays Bankruptcy Advisers $262.6 Million in Fees
By Linda Sandler
July 8 (Bloomberg) -- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the investment bank liquidating in bankruptcy, paid its advisers $262.6 million for nine months of work, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The best-paid firm through June was New York-based restructuring adviser Alvarez & Marsal LLC, which has taken $115 million in fees since Lehman declared bankruptcy in September, according to papers filed today. Lehman’s primary law firm, Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP of New York, received $63.7 million through June for a team headed by partner Harvey Miller.
A&M’s Bryan Marsal, who is Lehman’s chief executive officer, and Miller didn’t immediately respond to e-mails seeking comment.
Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP, which advises Lehman’s creditors, has received $17.2 million from the investment bank.
Lynn LoPucki, who teaches bankruptcy law at the University of California, Los Angeles, and maintains a database to calculate fees, has estimated that Weil Gotshal could see as much as $209 million in fees from the Lehman case. Overall, the bankers, accountants and lawyers in the case may reap record judge-approved charges of $906 million, LoPucki has said.
Those fees refer only to the Lehman holding company.
Lehman filed the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history with assets of $639 billion.
The Lehman case is In re Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., 08- 13555, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
That's the whole story. A brief item. For the author's links please go to the Bloomberg original.
All that transaction cost, and I bet not a one of them had a Teamsters Card. Nor tutored to steer the course at the Jim Russell school.
NASCAR's champion driving specialists don't do as well. Nor Dwayne Wade, driving the lane. But they labor for solvent entities.
Perhaps there's a lesson.
Vultures evolved and survived extinction, even prospered, having their feeding as it is.
____UPDATE_____
In a parallel story today incidentally concerning Leaman Bros. [past bond sales], WSJ reports that there are regulators somewhere on this globe having teeth AND caring to bite. My bet would be Singapore has a lower percentage of crooks in office and in lobbying, than other nations that regulate laxly, or pointlessly deregulate.