The Credit crunch

Approx 1 hour - this talk will:

• Give a thumbnail sketch of the financial markets environment/products which have led to this crisis
• Suggest some areas in which litigation may well arise out of the ashes
• Give a birds eye view of the Barclays Bank v Bear Stern lawsuit currently proceeding in New York, which has been much publicised in the financial press and which throws up some actual claims arising out of the failure of a hedge fund ie direct credit crunch fallout.
• Take a look at the law of security and insolvency, and the inter-relationship of trusts with commercial contracts, all in the credit crunch/securitization context.
• Consider the Eurotunnel refinancing litigation: Citibank v MBIA, as well as the Barings litigation.
• A look at the "representation" issue under statute & common law, with particular reference to Goldman Sachs v IFE,
• A look atthe issue of loss - are securitised instruments to be treated as secured debt (whose value cannot fall below the security underlying them) or as traded instruments (whose value depends on the market price) and is there any difference between the two.