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Monday, September 15, 2008

Lehman to File for Bankruptcy Protection

Source: New York Times September 14, 2008, 5:55 pm

Lehman Brothers will file for bankruptcy protection on Sunday night, according to people briefed on the matter, in the largest failure of an investment bank since the collapse of Drexel Burnham Lambert 18 years ago.

Lehman will seek to place its parent company, Lehman Brothers Holdings, into bankruptcy protection, while its subsidiaries will remain solvent while the firm liquidates its holdings, these people said. A consortium of banks will provide a financial backstop to help provide an orderly winding down of the 158-year-old investment bank. And the Federal Reserve has agreed to accept lower-quality assets in return for loans from the government.

Moreover, changes to the bankruptcy code mean that counterparties to Lehman’s credit-default swaps can seize their collateral at any time, posing an enormous potential risk to the entire financial markets. Investment banks, hedge funds and other financial players labored throughout Sunday to offset their exposure to Lehman, moving their contracts to other firms.

Lehman has retained the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges to prepare its bankruptcy filing. The firm’s restructuring head, Harvey Miller, also worked on Drexel’s bankruptcy back in 1990.
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