Call it what you like--historic, unprecedented, apocalyptic--2008 was a year that few Am Law 100 lawyers will forget. As former M&A masters of the universe, structured finance seers, and debt wheeler-dealers told us, 2008 started off fine. But Black Monday, September 15, the day Lehman Brothers died, was the beginning of the end. M&A came to a standstill. Corporate debt offerings dried up. Securitizations, already under pressure, stopped. It was an annus horribilis—and our Corporate Scorecard write-ups show how every sector of dealmaking and capital markets practices was affected.
Even worse, as the winter of 2009 finally came to an end, there was little hope that these markets would rebound anytime soon. History, it seems, is still being made.
Top Corporate Practices in 2008 - The Charts
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