Begin forwarded message:
From: Aaron Baldwin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: October 13, 2008 7:45:47 AM PDT
To: Kris Milligen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Linda Minor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Bones Law Firm of Simpson Thacher Chosen By Treasury
WASHINGTON -- The Treasury Department tapped law firm Simpson Thatcher
to provide advice on taking equity stakes in banks as part of its $700
billion rescue plan for the financial sector, Interim Assistant
Secretary for Financial Stability Neel Kashkari said in a speech Monday.
The Treasury is also moving fast on the plan's provision for buying
illiquid assets from financial institutions, according to Mr.
Kashkari, choosing consultancy Ennis Knupp to help select asset
managers for the program.
Speaking to an international banking group, Mr. Kashkari detailed
several steps the Treasury had taken to ramp up the so-called Troubled
Asset Relief Program in the last 10 days, conveying that it is working
with utmost speed on the rescue effort.
"A program as large and complex as this would normally take months --
or even years -- to establish. We don't have months or years," Mr.
Kashkari said. "Hence, we are moving to implement the TARP as quickly
as possible while working to ensure high quality execution." (See the
full text of Mr. Kashkari's remarks.)
Mr. Kashkari said the Treasury has received more than 200 applications
from firms seeking to manage securities or whole loans under the
program. He said the winning vendors will be chosen in the next few
days.
Meanwhile, the Treasury has narrowed its choice of firms to serve as
custodian from 70 to 10 and will make a decision within the next 24
hours, he said.
Treasury announced early last week that it was seeking bids to help
run its asset-purchase program, giving firms 48 hours to apply. Since
then, the idea of buying stakes in banks to shore up their capital has
quickly gained traction.
Mr. Kashkari said Treasury had leeway under the $700 billion plan,
which had been sold to lawmakers as a plan to buy bad assets from Wall
Street, to buy equity in firms.
"Treasury worked hard with Congress to build in this flexibility
because the one constant throughout the credit crisis has been its
unpredictability," Mr. Kashkari said.
No formal request of bids was posted by Treasury to oversee such an
effort. According to Mr. Kashkari, the Treasury asked six specialist
law firms to advise on the equity stakes and received only two
proposals.
On Friday, it selected Simpson Thatcher, which will begin work this
week.
The Treasury also asked six firms to apply to help in choosing asset
managers. Ennis Knupp was selected from only three firms that
submitted proposals. The firm will also begin work immediately.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122390023840728367.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Neel Kashkari
Interim Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability
and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Economics
and Development
Neel Kashkari was designated as the Interim Assistant Secretary of the
Treasury for Financial Stability on October 6, 2008. In this capacity,
Mr. Kashkari oversees the Office of Financial Stability including the
Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Mr. Kashkari also continues to hold the position of Assistant
Secretary of the Treasury for International Economics and Development,
but his International Affairs responsibilities are delegated to
Assistant Secretary for International Affairs Clay Lowery while Mr.
Kashkari serves as Interim Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability.
Mr. Kashkari joined the Treasury Department in July 2006 as Senior
Advisor to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. In that role,
he was responsible for developing the President’s Twenty in Ten energy
security plan, enhancing Treasury’s engagement with India,
particularly in the area of infrastructure development, and developing
and executing the Department’s response to the housing crisis,
including the formation of the HOPE NOW Alliance, the development of
the subprime fast-track loan modification plan, and Treasury’s
initiative to kick-start a covered bond market in the United States.
Prior to joining the Treasury Department, Mr. Kashkari was a Vice
President at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in San Francisco, where he led
Goldman's IT Security Investment Banking practice, advising public and
private companies on mergers and acquisitions and financial
transactions. Prior to his career in finance, Mr. Kashkari was a R&D
Principal Investigator at TRW in Redondo Beach, California where he
developed technology for NASA space science missions such as the James
Webb Space Telescope.
Bachelor's degree, Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign; Master's degrees, Engineering, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign; MBA, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neel_Kashkari
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP began its 124th year in January 2008.
Throughout its history, Simpson Thacher’s practice has reflected the
major financial and industrial activities of the times. At the end of
the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, the Firm
was active in railroad reorganizations, the creation of mining and
natural resource companies and the national expansion of the public
utility system.
After World War I Simpson Thacher's practice expanded internationally.
By the 1920's, the Firm represented clients in Africa, Asia, the
Caribbean, Europe and South America.
Simpson Thacher's extensive banking practice developed in the 1950's,
with the representation of Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company. Today,
the Firm has an unparalleled banking practice representing, among
other banks, JP Morgan Chase, the successor to Manufacturers Hanover,
Chemical Bank, Chase Manhattan and JP Morgan, each of which was a
major money center bank in its own right.
Simpson Thacher has represented investment banks in varied corporate
financings from the early 1900's. During the 60's and 70's the
corporate practice came to focus more on the financial services sector
with the representation of virtually every major U.S. investment
banking firm. In the 1980's and 1990's the Firm developed one of the
world’s premier merger & acquisition practices, including a unique
strength in leveraged buyout acquisitions and finance for clients such
as Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts and The Blackstone Group.
Litigation has always been an integral and significant part of Simpson
Thacher's practice. Firm litigators focus on trial practice and
particularly on jury trials. The Firm’s securities litigation grew
after the New Deal enactment of the federal securities legislation
during the 1930’s. New antitrust legislation led to a growing
antitrust practice by the Firm, with clients in such varied industries
as motion pictures, electrical power, steel, plastics and optical
glass, can manufacturing, magazine distribution and professional
boxing. In recent years, the Firm has played a leading role in
multiple-case, multiple jurisdiction litigation and class action
cases, as well as international dispute resolution, representing
clients from all industry sectors and from around the world.
Simpson Thacher’s commitment to pro bono representation has been well
recognized over the years. Recently, Simpson Thacher secured a
significant victory for the Campaign for Fiscal Equity when the trial
judge in the long-running litigation ordered a $5.6 billion increase
in operating aid for the New York City schools and a substantial
capital funding increase, following the recommendations of a panel of
special masters. This decade-long case represents one of the largest
and most successful pro bono initiatives of any major law firm.
The strong commitment of Simpson Thacher and its lawyers to public
service has existed from the very beginning. Simpson Thacher lawyers
have included U.S. Senators, Solicitors General, a Speaker of the
House of Representatives, a Secretary of State, a Secretary of the
Army, Ambassadors, Judges on U.S. Circuit and District Courts and the
New York State Court of Appeals, presidents of the American Bar
Association, and presidents of the Association of the Bar of the City
of New York.
http://www.stblaw.com/History.htm
Aaron Baldwin
San Francisco, CA 94114
(415) 377-8147
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LinkedIn Profile
"And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not
warned
from time to time that this people preserve the spirit of resistance?
Let them take arms ... The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time
to time,
with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
It is it's natural manure."
US President & Founding Father Thomas Jefferson
