Lehman Brothers And Weil Gotshal Say Examiner Report Should Be Made Public

In anticipation of a hearing scheduled for 2:00 tomorrow afternoon, Lehman Brothers, and its law firm, Weil Gotshal & Manges, have urged the bankruptcy court to make public the investigative report into the events that precipitated Lehman’s downfall that has been prepared by the court-appointed Examiner, Anton R. Valukas. 

Lehman Brothers points out in its papers that it has “cooperated fully” with the Examiner’s investigation, and that, in response to hundreds of pages of document requests, it has produced over 20 million pages of e-mails. In addition, Lehman says it has provided the Examiner with access to numerous other sources of data, has made employees available for interviews with the Examiner, and assisted in arranging interviews with dozens of former Lehman employees. It also says that it has “dedicated a large number of attorneys, technology professionals, outside vendors, and other resources in an effort to produce documents and information to the Examiner in an expeditious manner.
 
It certainly can be expected that the court will rule that the report be made available to the public, given the strong presumption in favor of public access to such documents. See, e.g., Lugosch v. Pyramid Co., 435 F.3d 110, 119 (2d Cir. 2006); In re FiberMark, Inc., 330 B.R. 480, 505 (Bankr. D. Vt. 2005).