Foreclosures of the Week

Citigroup Names Stuckey to Run $43 Billion Subprime Group After Writedowns Stocks in U.S. Rise,

Led by Energy, Commodities Producers;

Exxon Advances Dollar Falls to Record Low Against Euro;

Bank Losses May Spur Fed Rate Cut

Time Warner Names Cable Executive Martin as Finance Chief,

Pace Ambac Rejects Morgan Stanley Loss Estimates for Bond Insurers;

Shares Rise Citigroup SIVs Have Drawn on $7.6 Billion of Emergency Funds to Repay Debt

BMW Profit Growth Is Less Than Analysts Estimated on Dollar;

Shares Fall Afghanistan Suicide Bomb Attack Kills at Least 28,

I CAN CUT AND PASTE FROM BLOOMBERG TOO !!!

The Wack

Someday I’ll leave my parents home

“You are a true idiot, the What.

Of the highest order.

You use the same tactics as Bush. False, scare tactics based on nothing but your own agenda.

Saying someone is the only one paying their mortgage? Come on. Do you HOPE people are going under? Because with all the nonsense you write, that has been my impression. You hope the worst for people (your neighbors, in fact) and that is MORE scary than any credit troubles we’ve had.”

Bruh, I’m a Broker. I have access to the Brooklyn MLS System and the foreclosure list. I have sold houses and did short sales. What have you done?? I will tell you, NOTHING! You and the rest for the clueless have 1. no idea what’s coming 2. No idea about Real Estate. I’m using fear, I’m using the truth! The Mutant Real Estate Bubble is OVER!!! GET IT OVER!!!!!!!

The What

Someday this war will end….

First the brokerags and banks cut jobs, now the law firms are starting to shed jobs. Hate to say it, but the F’in What is right (to a degree). Times are really bad when law firms cut jobs, they’re traditionally much more reluctant than Wall Street. This is not good for the NY Market:

Credit-Crunch Casualties:
Six NY BigLaw Associates Axed

In one of the first clear signs that slumping credit markets are causing economic pain at law firms, Clifford Chance yesterday laid off a group of associates in the structured finance area.

John Christian, the partner in charge of the London-based firm’s U.S. personnel committee, said the firm had made a difficult “business decision” to lay off the six associates in a practice group that worked exclusively for credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s. The lawyers in the group had reviewed the documentation S&P used to rate mortgage-backed securities, the market for which has collapsed in recent months.

“We concluded this work just wasn’t coming back,” Mr. Christian said. He declined to discuss the severance packages offered to the associates, but one of those terminated said they were offered three months’ salary with no bonus. Indeed, the associate said the timing of the layoffs seemed designed to deprive the targeted associates, all of whom were relatively senior, of their bonuses.

The past week has seen a flurry of bonus announcements from New York law firms matching the level set last Monday by Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Cravath announced two bonuses that, combined, range from $45,000 for first-years to $110,000 for senior associates. Among the many firms that have matched that range in recent days are Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy; Willkie Farr & Gallagher; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Sullivan & Cromwell (see “NY Firms March to Match Cravath Bonuses”). Clifford Chance has not yet announced a bonus but in the past has matched other firms.

The high bonuses announced by law firms have stood in contrast to bad news at major clients like investment banks, many of which have already had layoffs.

Many of the layoffs at banks are also linked to the weakness of the structured finance market, and many of the law firms with large practices in the area may feel pressure to make cuts.

Clifford Chance was actually not a major player in the U.S. structured finance market, at least not compared to firms like Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft; Sidley Austin; Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; McKee Nelson and Thacher Proffitt & Wood, all of whom have scores of lawyers in securitization practices that have slowed considerably.

Paul D. Tvetenstrand, chairman of Thacher Proffitt, said his firm, while definitely slower than before, still had work from securitizations of assets other than residential mortgages. He said there were no economic layoffs in the works and that associates at the firm have been reassured as such.

“Our partners are going to take the hit before we pass it on to the associates,” he said.

McKee Nelson brought aboard another New York partner yesterday. Alice F. Yurke, formerly a partner at Morrison & Foerster, said her derivatives practices could take advantage of some of the skills of the firm’s many structured finance lawyers in an area that was still quite busy.

Mr. Christian said Clifford Chance had decided the associates in its S&P group could not be reassigned because of their relative seniority. The firm has about 260 lawyers in its New York office.

Law firms are generally loath to engage in layoffs because they hurt the firm image in the eyes of both lateral and law-school candidates. Clifford Chance is still wrestling with the fallout from a leaked 2002 associates’ memo that described widespread misery at the firm.

Nevertheless, law firms have engaged in major layoffs in the past. Shearman & Sterling laid off 10 percent of its associates when mergers and acquisitions plummeted in 2001 and the former Dewey Ballantine (now Dewey & LeBoeuf) also had a number of layoffs.

Actually I’m a foreclosure-hunting bottom feeder. So yes, this is all gravy for me.

The What

someday i’ll get laid ……