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United against Madoff: Lawyers form 'global alliance'

By Ward Harkavy in Featured
Wednesday, Feb. 18 2009 @ 1:01PM
nu madoff watch 170.jpg
It has to take something really bad or really good to unify people in 21 countries. But when it comes to unifying lawyers, all it takes is Bernie Madoff.

And though the Madoff problem is really bad, the lawyers' fees will be really good.

Graham Keeley reports in the Times (U.K.):

'Lawyers from 21 countries tackle Madoff case'
Three British law firms join a world alliance representing claimants who lost out in the alleged $50 billion Madoff fraud

...The British companies were joined by lawyers from 21 countries, including the United States, France, Mexico, Uruguay, Switzerland, Italy, France, Argentina, Chile, Panama, Israel, German, Lithuania, Colombia, Brazil, Austria, Ecuador, Luxembourg, Malta and Portugal.

They represent banks, hedge funds, public bodies and individual investors.

This scary organization, called the Madoff Case Global Alliance of Law Firms, held its first meeting Monday in Madrid.

We could use such a coordinated approach to the bigger problem of the world economy's meltdown and the coming Great Depression II.

Here's another Times (U.K.) snippet to show you how just how unusual such cooperation by such sharks is:

Javier Cremades, president of the Alliance, said: "We find ourselves in an unprecedented situation in the profession: for the first time, lawyers from companies of differing sizes and from different continents have united to give a global response to a global problem.

"This is especially important with a case like Madoff, which evades, by its very nature, national jurisdictions."

Lawyers converging on Madoff. Thank God they're not aiming at you. But wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall at these meetings? Here's what a Compliance Week commenter had to say today in response to Bruce Carton's item on that site's Enforcement Action blog about the first gathering:

I just returned from this meeting as an observer from the US. It was extremely interesting both for what was said and what was not said. The potential conflicts may prevent any progress on specific litigation. Most of the attorneys were plaintiff side but there were also a substantial number who defend banks and feeder funds. The biggest elephant in the room may have been the unnamed victims who wish to remain so...motivated by tax or money laundering issues.

You have to love such international cooperation.