News

HHR Selected Lehman Liquidation Trustee Counsel

Hughes Hubbard partner James W. Giddens has been appointed Trustee for the liquidation of Lehman Brothers Inc., the broker-dealer, and Hughes Hubbard has been selected as counsel to the Trustee. Giddens, who is co-chair of Hughes Hubbard’s Corporate Reorganization Department, was selected by the Securities Investor Protection Corp. (SIPC) and appointed by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. SIPC maintains a reserve fund authorized by Congress to help investors at failed brokerage firms.

A reporter for the Amlaw Daily asked SIPC president Stephen Harbeck how SIPC happened to choose Giddens to handle this liquidation, which may be the largest in U.S. history. According to the publication, Harbeck was under time constraints to appoint a trustee and called Giddens, with whom he first worked in the 1970s in the case of a failed brokerage called Weiss Securities. The two have since successfully teamed up on several matters. “Once Hughes Hubbard determined it didn’t have a conflict, the firm was hired,” Harbeck said.