Lehman Brothers Still A Factor In Bankruptcy Case Work

NEW YORK, March 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Deal has announced the results of their quarterly rankings of the top firms and professionals involved in active bankruptcy cases for the fourth quarter of 2012.  Overall, filings were down (Chapter 7, 9, 11, 12 and 15) but for the major firms, caseloads increased significantly.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130305/NY70755LOGO)

Read The Deal's full analysis here.

League Table highlights:

• Skadden, Arps, Meagher & Flom LLP reclaimed the number one spot among law firms in part due to assignments including Monitor Co. Group LP, LCI Holding Co. and Inspiration Biopharmaceuticals.  Several law firms saw a drop in rankings in Q4 versus Q3 2012 as a result of their special counsel assignments ending on the Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. case including Dechert LLP, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP and Jones Day.

• Amongst lawyers, Michael Schein of Vedder Price PC saw his rank rise from eighty-two places in Q3 to number one in Q4 due to his work with Edison Mission Energy, Patriot Coal Corp. and his continued work with Lehman. Wendy Walker, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, also saw her ranking rise ninety-five spots to fifteen due to her creditor work on the Lehman bankruptcy.  Tom Lauria (White & Case), Douglas Rosner (Goulston & Storrs), Andrew Gottfried (Morgan, Lewis & Bockius), Peter Gilhuly (Latham & Watkins), Richard Hahn (Debevoise & Plimpton), Douglas Lipke (Vedder Price), Scott Davidson (King & Spalding), John Rapisardi (Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft) and Daniel Golden (Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld) round out the top 10.

• On the investment banking tables, Houlihan Lokey maintained their number one ranking for the second straight quarter while Houlihan Lokey banker Eric Seigert secured a sweep of the number one ranking for 2012 with the Q4 results. Mesirow Financial Holdings Inc. saw their ranking rise from eighth place in Q3 2012 to number five in Q4 2012 due to their work on the Southern Air Holdings Inc. and AMF Bowling Worldwide Inc. cases.

• The non-investment banking rankings, made up of accounting, auditing or consulting firm firms, saw Epiq Bankruptcy Solutions and adviser Lorenzo Mendizabal rank number 1 for the second straight quarter with 104 active cases totaling $1,043.9 billion in assets.

"The Lehman bankruptcy will continue to play a significant role in the next quarters because of its sheer size," says David Elman, Senior Editor at The Deal, "Although Lehman's liquidation plan took effect nearly a year ago, the wind-down of operations continues. Notably, Lehman in November agreed to sell Archstone Inc. to Equity Residential Inc. and AvalonBay Communities Inc. for $16 billion."

The full-suite of rankings is available now on The Deal Pipeline, the transaction information service powered by The Deal newsroom.

About The Deal's Bankruptcy League Tables

The Deal's Bankruptcy League Tables are the industry's only league tables focused solely on active U.S. bankruptcy cases.  The rankings involve cases of debtors with assets of $10 million or more with the rankings based on the aggregation of those asset values. Firms and professionals only get one credit for each active case, not each active assignment. There are eight categories: law firms and lawyers, investment banks and bankers, crisis management firms and professionals, and non-investment banks and professionals.

About The Deal
The Deal, a business unit of TheStreet, has been serving corporate dealmakers, advisers and institutional investors the most sophisticated analysis of the deal economy since 1999. The transaction information service, The Deal Pipeline, is powered by a newsroom of senior financial journalists who offer proprietary research and reporting across M&A, bankruptcies, auctions and financings. The Deal Pipeline includes the First Take breaking news service, daily and weekly sector newsletters, The Daily Deal twice-daily report of the day's top stories, a research center with over a decade's worth of intelligence and a database of 100,000+ deals, and an iPad app. Our marketing and media services group produces the industry's premier forecasting event, The Deal Economy, held annually at the New York Stock Exchange, in addition to industry webcasts and integrated marketing programs. For more information, visit www.thedeal.com.

Contact:

The Deal
Erin Corcoran
212-313-9253
[email protected]

SOURCE The Deal Pipeline