PwC calls on Links as Lehman Bros goes into administration

Linklaters bagged the biggest UK instruction on the Lehman collapse, advising four Pricewaterhouse-Coopers (PwC) partners on the administration of Lehman Brothers International (Europe).

New York-based Weil Gotshal & Manges is handling Lehman’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in the US, led by partner Harvey Miller.

The deal is being led by Linklaters head of restructuring and insolvency Tony Bugg, restructuring partner Richard Holden, and corporate partners Matthew Middleditch and David Ereira.

It is understood that most banks are also seeking advice from their legal advisers on their position in the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Of particular interest is whether other banks can terminate various credit derivative contracts to which Lehman Brothers is acting as a counterparty.

Lehman is the seventh largest derivatives counterparty, according to a survey by financial ratings agency Fitch Ratings last year.

Lehman Brothers, the principal UK trading company in the Lehman group, was placed into administration last Monday morning, together with three other group companies.PwC partners Mike Jervis, Tony Lomas, Steven Pearson and Dan Schwarzmann have been appointed as joint administrators
to wind down the business.

Lehman Brothers’ fall comes just six months after it extended its UK panel to include Simmons & Simmons. Other panel firms likely to be hit include Allen & Overy, Lovells, Ashurst, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Weil Gotshal & Manges.

One partner at a City firm said: “These are uncertain times we’re living in – I think you get certain seminal days in your career, like 9/11 or the Big Bang. Today in shock terms is huge, seeing a bank like Lehman go under.”

The Bank of England has drafted in the restructuring team at Freshfields to advise on the UK regulatory aspects of the deal, while Lovells has taken the lead for the Financial Services Authority.