Privilege, Law Firms Take Center Stage in Suddenly Hot WaMu
Lawyers for Washington Mutual filed papers Friday in the bank's Chapter 11 case claiming Sullivan & Cromwell, on behalf of WaMu's new owners at JPMorgan Chase, have been sending out letters asking WaMu's old law firms to turn over their client files on WaMu--files that include privileged material.
The letters, which WaMu's lawyers at Quinn, Emanuel, Urquhart, Oliver & Hedges have attached as exhibits, claim JPMorgan should have access to the privileged documents because JPMorgan and WaMu are essentially the same entity now. Those entities have "joint privilege," the letters claim.
Firms that have received the letters include Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Perkins Coie, and others.
Quinn Emanuel disagrees with the "joint privilege" notion, and it is not thrilled about how S&C and JPMorgan have been conducting themselves, court records show. The motion Quinn filed Friday asks a judge to require JPMorgan and its lawyers to give WaMu's estate advance notice if they are going to be sending these "joint privilege" letters to law firms and requesting client files. The Quinn motion says the WaMu team has requested advance notice in the last week, but says that JPMorgan's side has "declined to provide" it. (WaMu and Quinn claim they only heard about the letters because the firms that received them contacted WaMu and its lawyers).
Why do JPMorgan and its lawyers want these documents so badly? As we reported earlier this week, JPMorgan and WaMu's estate are engaged in a major spat in which WaMu's estate has accused JPMorgan of improperly using confidential information in 2008 to artificially lower WaMu's asking price and buy the distressed bank on the cheap. (JPMorgan eventually purchased WaMu's assets for $1.9 billion in Sept. 2008 after the FDIC placed WaMu in receivership.)
The letters JPMorgan and S&C sent to the various law firms request piles of documents related to the JPMorgan-WaMu transaction.
We reached out to some of the lead lawyers on both sides (Peter Calamari and Michael Carlinsky at Quinn, and Bruce Clark at S&C) but we have not heard back yet. We'll let you know if and when we do.
In any case, the WaMu bankruptcy is getting very interesting for lots and lots of Am Law 100 firms.
