And now, the real winners in this financial crisis get revealed. It is the litigators.
Surprise! Surprise! Not really.
Of course, most of the magic circle and other top global law firms have either a contractual or simply just an unwritten rule not to sue investment banks as the fees from non-contentious work like M&A and IPO transactions are far more lucrative. However, in these new economic times, I am sure a few will break rank in the months to come.
Particularly as not only will more banks start suing each other, but we’ll also see an increase in investors, politicians and even other businesses suing banks. Thus, it will be hard for many of these global law firms to remain on the sidelines.
Plus with the near disappearance of bulge bracket investment banks who provided most of the profitable non-contentious work, some large global law firms will struggle to survive. And a few may have to swallow their pride, forget about possibly missing out on future instructions and cross over. There is serious money to me made now — and oh yeah, someone (anyone really) needs to be held accountable for the near meltdown of the global banking system.