The best researched article we’ve seen yet on the collapse of San Francisco Firm, Heller Erhman..
Authored by Niraj Chokshi in Law.com publication The Recorder.
Chokshi documents Heller’s almost unbelievable bad luck as the firm’s partners tried to forge an alliance with Mayer Brown whilst Wall Street melted down..
"We were very close to consummating the transaction, and I personally believed that it was going to happen," said Heller Managing Partner Robert Hubbell, who hadn’t been involved in the presentation.
But it was an uncertain time. The economy was in desperate disarray, with Wall Street — and many of Mayer Brown’s finance practice clients — in full meltdown. As of that Friday, Mayer Brown client Lehman Brothers had seen its value plunge 80 percent in the course of a week. Lehman would in fact file bankruptcy Monday — the same day Heller was supposed to make its presentation. The Wall Street collapse, the known problems at Heller and the Covington group’s move were enough reason to kill a deal and by late Friday afternoon, that’s what Mayer did, eliminating Heller’s last viable merger partner, and its last hope of survival.
The Full article is well worth a read at
