Financial Crisis Aptitude Test: BigLaw Edition

A little quiz to fiddle with while Rome burns...

1. What did University of Maryland Law Professor Michael Greenberger describe as “really insurance but not regulated like insurance; really a futures contracts but not regulated like a futures contract”?

a) Scratch-off lottery tickets

b.) Credit swap derivatives

c.) The NBA salary cap

d.) Katie Holmes’ prenup

2. The total amount of debt listed on Lehman Brothers' Chapter 11 petition was:

a) The most ever: at least $639 billion.

b) Larger than the previous 10 largest Chapter 11 filings combined, and then some.

c) Roughly equal to the GDP of The Netherlands.

d) All of the above.

3. Who was the lead bankruptcy attorney for both Drexel Burnham in 1990 and Lehman Brothers in 2008?

a.) Lionel Hutz

b.) Mitch McDeere

c.) Harvey Miller

d.) Perry Mason

4. The venerable law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft laid off 130 lawyers in 2008. Firm Chairman Christopher White said which of the following things during the past year?

a) "There was a bubble, we rode the bubble, it contracted, we adjusted." 

b) “There was a frothiness that occurred.”

c) “Even knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have changed a thing.”

d) All of the above

5. Who is the powerful Manhattan corporate lawyer who, during his recent “five weeks in hell,” represented Fannie Mae, Barclays, AIG, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Wachovia?

a.) Ben Cohen

b.) Leonard Cohen

c.) H. Rodgin Cohen

d.) Sacha Baron Cohen

6. Which of these is not a “Magic Circle” firm?

a.) Linklaters

b.) Slaughter and May

c.) Hogwarts

d.) Freshfields

7. Which law firm dissolved in September 2008—after more than a century in business?

a.) Heller Ehrman

b.) Jacoby & Meyers

c.) Bendini, Lambert & Locke

d.) Donovan Leisure

8. The attorneys for embattled former Lehman CEO Dick Fuld and former CFO Erin Callan both went to which law school?

a) Fordham

b) Harvard

c) Columbia

d) Yale

9. John “The Mighty” Quinn, an enthusiastic filer (and winner) of lawsuits against major financial institutions, was quoted in 2008 saying that he “suspected” that his firm was widely ______.

a.) Adored

b.) Feared

c.) Envied

d.) Hated

10. The mighty Wall Street firm Skadden Arps recently represented Nomura Holdings in its purchase of Lehman Brothers’ foreign assets. Who among the following has never worked for Skadden?

a) Elliot Spitzer

b) Robert Bennett

c) Michelle Obama

d) Silda Spitzer

11. Which law firm’s founding partner worked in Warren Buffet’s father’s Omaha grocery store as a teenager—and now serves Berkshire Hathaway’s main M&A counsel?

a) Brobeck Phleger

b) Munger Tolles & Olson

c) Rogers & Wells

d) Donovan Leisure

-posted by brian

answers: b,d,c,d,c,c,a,a,d,c,b