Lawyers Joke that GM Bankruptcy Will Deplete Experienced Bar

A General Motors bankruptcy would require so many restructuring specialists that lawyers joke there wouldn’t be enough to go around.

GM had nearly $150 billion in revenue last year; its restructuring would be more complicated and possibly larger than that of any American corporation, including Enron, the New York Times reports. “Legal fees totaling hundreds of millions of dollars are likely during the course of the case given the high-powered and high-fee lawyers involved,” the Times says.

Hundreds of bankruptcy lawyers from nearly every major firm with restructuring teams have spent months preparing documents that would be required in a GM filing, expected before June 1.

Among the experts tapped to work on the bankruptcy are Harvey Miller of Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Martin Bienenstock of Dewey & LeBoeuf. Miller and other Weil lawyers are principal legal counsel for the bankruptcy filing, while Bienenstock could end up representing the reorganized company, the Times says.

The American Lawyer identifies other lawyers advising GM: corporate group chairman Joseph Gromacki and partner Michael Wolf of Jenner & Block in Chicago, and bankruptcy and reorganization chair Robert Weiss of Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn in Detroit.

Meanwhile, GM’s board is represented by Cravath, Swaine & Moore, the Times says.