…[CEO Kenneth] Lewis’s lawyers at Debevoise & Plimpton implied that the former CEO was under the impression that his CFO, Joe Price, had spoken both to the bank’s then GC, Timothy Mayopoulos, and to BofA’s deal counsel at Wachtell.
The shareholders’ opposition brief demolishes that implication. “The record … establishes that BoA excluded Wachtell from the disclosure analysis at the critical time in the weeks before the (shareholder) vote,” the brief said. “Wachtell’s senior partners have uniformly testified that they were not informed of Merrill’s key December 3 loss estimate prior to the vote, and that Wachtell was not consulted at all on the issue of disclosure after November 20. Indeed, Wachtell did not learn of the magnitude of Merrill’s losses until December 12, when BoA contacted Wachtell one week after the vote to terminate the transaction because of Merrill’s losses.”
via BofA shareholders: Wachtell ‘excluded’ as Merrill losses mounted — On the Case
