Picard barely had time to enjoy that accomplishment before he was slammed with some very bad news. Manhattan federal district court judge Jed Rakoff lopped $6.6 billion in claims from his suit against HSBC Bank and another $2 billion in claims from his suit against UniCredit SpA and other co-defendants, ruling that the Baker & Hostetler partner didn’t have standing to bring common law claims for fraud and other actions against third parties. Making matters worse, the ruling could cripple Picard’s $19 billion suit against JPMorgan Chase. Although that case is before Manhattan federal district court judge Colleen McMahon, you can be sure it will be cited in the brief that JPMorgan’s lawyers at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz are set to file by Aug. 1.
HSBC is represented by Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton partners Evan Davis, Thomas Moloney, and David Brodsky. UniCredit, which is also a defendant in a separate $58.8 billion Picard suit against Bank Medici and others, is represented by Marco Schnabl and Susan Saltzstein of Skadden. “We’re pleased with the decision,” Saltzstein said, in what’s surely an enormous understatement.
