Nortel Keeping Lawyers Busy

When it's all argued and done, the affected will get nothing …The rewards will go to pay these lawyers.

Irregard of who will represent the laid-off workers/pensioners, it is certain that Nortel is kaput !. I don't understand why the creditors still are still floundering around…The way to maximize their return is to liquidate now. The longer they wait the lower the prices they get and all the money spent on KERP/KEIP and lawyer's fees

Nortel should become a law firm. they might be more profitable that way. Over 10 years of lawsuit experience in accounting scandals, shareholders, SEC, management churn, bankruptcy proceedings.

They have quite the resume now.

Today has been slooooow

You are so right. One thing about ex-Nortel employees, including those left, are that we've been through many trials. We have experienced growth, contraction, retrenchment, and now Chapter 11.

Of course the BoD and executives are ultimately responsible for lack of vision, misguidance, greed, lack of due diligence (overpaying for companies), and general incompetence. However, don't lose sight that Nortel employees have managed through very difficult times and trials, and many are stronger people, employees and managers for it.

And if 800 accountants after almost a year still couldn't get numbers right (numbers downplayed in restating a restated restatement that doubled like they downplayed foldin) what forecasting skills have improved like 3 to 5 year plans and $20 buying opportunities to forecast any restructuring objectives. There is already nothing left to such a gross degree to hold any more ultimatums or hostages again.

You';d think they would improving their accounting skills above their legal might too but how when the SEC finally monitored repair years after their restating a restated restatement as their debt to cash ratio widens by the day with a declining asset base to afford anything under “extreme financial pressure” as an understatement.

Are these repair of numbers important any more or do they take a back seat to their insolvency to let the trustee and /bankruptcy judge worry about them. Fraud trials sure aren't going away on jurisdictional grounds or wrongful dismissals I suspect with so many still there keeping bonuses to boot.

There is only one thing they are good at, and that is consistently shocking the dickens out of everyone's lives except perhaps for the very few who are rewarded by their ongoing exorbitant pay practices and don't care either way if they want them to overlook winding it down further after exhausting any turn around.

Never mind the accounting they have still not fixed any more than their laughable forecasting to create any forever elusive plan let alone now, as they already owe their lawyers, and so many more, to even their very employees who are suing them with the last of their money losing more by the day. Laughable… unbelievable… with billions already vaporized in their endless follies and catalyzed blunders to this fine point.

Lets hope this never happens again and those responsible are held accountable to show others exactly what not to do, while we are at it, overhaul the OSC to a national body and monitor the EDC who is handing out money under pressure like drunken sailors lately. Lots needs to be fixed inside and outside the Nortanic.

or an accounting firm or a finance company =)

Did you know that Nortel has a contract with the Canadian Autoworkers Union? Their lawyer was in court today trying to get a piece of the NT action

http://www.610cktb.com/news/13/915376

CAW says Nortel can't break contract severance provisions despite CCAA precedents

Tue, 2009-04-21 17:22.

By: David Paddon, THE CANADIAN PRESS

TORONTO – Nortel Networks Corp. (TSX:NT) shouldn't be allowed to ignore its contract with the Canadian Auto Workers, as it did when severance and other payments to former employees were cut off the day it got creditor protection, a union lawyer asserted Tuesday.

Nortel and the judge overseeing its restructuring noted that severance and other post-employment payments are routinely suspended under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, but the CAW argued that its members should be treated like suppliers – not unsecured creditors.

CAW lawyer Barry Wadsworth acknowledged that the courts typically have treated former employees the same way as other creditors who are owed money.

In other words, they would have to wait until all competing claims are sorted out and whatever money is available is distributed under court supervision.

But in this case, Wadsworth said, the Canadian Auto Workers should be treated like other suppliers that continue to provide services – and this means maintaining contractual obligations.

“This is a current obligation in which the employer has said it will not render those payments,” Wadsworth said.

He argued that Nortel can't unilaterally change the CAW contract, just as its members at Nortel – currently about 45 people – can't stop work while the collective agreement is in effect.

“The union is at a distinct disadvantage because it cannot withdraw the services which it is obliged to provide through the labour of its members,” Wadsworth said.

Justice Geoffrey Morawetz expressed incredulity that despite “scores” of previous CCAA cases involving unionized workers Wadsworth's line of argument has been “ignored, for lack of a better word, by everybody else.”

Wadsworth replied that he wasn't aware of any previous claim that the employer's obligation was to the union rather than to individuals represented by the union.

Nortel argued that there have been many cases in which the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act was used to suspend payments of severance and benefits to former employees.

Alan Merskey, representing Nortel, said the question of post-filing severance has been litigated several times and the legal principle is that the insolvent company must conserve its resources while restructuring.

However, the CAW motion was supported by several lawyers acting on behalf of thousands of other former Nortel employees, including some members of other unions.

A lawyer with Koskie Minsky, which has asked the court to recognize it as representative of all pensioners and former Nortel employees who were let go recently, said they should also be paid if the CAW is successful in its motion.

“It would be unfair to not award the same kind of payment to the other groups,” Susan Philpott told the court.

In addition, Philpott argued that employment rights under various provincial laws can't be overridden by the CCAA process, so Nortel is obliged in many cases to make termination or severance payments when employees were let go.

Koskie Minsky is seeking to represent 600 people cut loose recently, 280 before Nortel filed for court protection in January and 400 after the filing.

Nortel has said it had about 6,000 employees in Canada when it sought protection from creditors, which are collectively owed billions of dollars.

The company had about 30,000 employees worldwide as of Sept. 30, but has cut thousands before and after filing for court protection on Jan. 14 in Canada and the United States.

duh!..–bb

You kinda gotta put two and two together here.
The CAW is representing Pensioners.
Many current pensioners worked in Union shops in Belleville, Kingston, Toronto, wherever. At those shops they were part of the CAW.
This is going back some time.

That makes sense but the article says that it is not just pensioners. It says there is a current contract between the CAW and Nortel for labor and services.

Re-read this part:

He argued that Nortel can't unilaterally change the CAW contract, just as its members at Nortel – currently about 45 people – can't stop work while the collective agreement is in effect.

So who are these 45 people who are currently obligated to work for Nortel? What capacity are they working in?

There was a time their armies of mega-powerful lawyers could rewrite Newtons Law and convinced everyone the world was flat but today they are running out of time and money.

Striving to defy physics yet again only to disappear this go round strikes me as fruitless and senseless.

I mean., just how complex has this become not to acquire better advise short of being told to fold, perhaps the best advise they got since the Garys left or of anyone asked them if anyone told them yet today =)

I do believe the union has a case here, I hope the court rules on their favor.

I believe shysters are so expensive because their business networks are overwhelmingly Cisco, thereby costing their clientele an additonal 30% more per hour than attorneys-at-law, esq. who reject large corp. sponsorships.

Cisco further rewards customer “loyatly” with Cisco stock at 30% discount, thereby inflating their stock value artificially – with malice, even – by up to 30%.

Shysters can afford to buy jets and burn vast tunnels of deadly CO2* straight through the ozone n route to their Caribbean resorts gifted them by the oil cabal.

*O2 – Oxygen – is good, inflating the molecule's size by 30% with Carbon makes it toxic

There may still be some unionized installers and related trades in Nortel, but likely only a handful.

Not sure that the board is clear on how lawyers work. They are indeed hired guns, paid to argue in favor of one point of view, but the rules are clear and the entire profession is designed to align perfectly with the client – in this case the employees.

There are clear guidelines on how to do this with someone else paying the bill. Note that here it's essentially the court that pays using Nortel's money. This is exactly the same situation that the creditors and indeed Nortel are in: the court approves the hiring and ongoing payment using Nortel's cash.

What's broken here is that the other legal firms that wish to represent employees have a vested interest in getting the gig, as opposed to advising employees which is the best firm to go with. Folks would do well to research each of the competing teams to see if the Nortel/Monitor pick isn't indeed the best bet.

This is years ago but I made a crack one time about the engineers all joining a union. Socialist workers uniting and such. Then I clued, and the director wasn't smiling.

I thought to myself, “Piss off,” and I was right.

The genius of Mike Z, the BoD, Pavi, and Joel is starting to become clear now. Nortel is begining to break free from its chains and re-invent itself! It is finally going to get on a rock solid financial footing once and for all. Nortel is be inviagrated by this wonderful process. This is the most postive and uplifting expereince of my life. I cannot beleive all the negativity of ungrateful employees, creditors, ex-employees, and especially those grumpy old pensioners that never did much fro Nortel anyway. As a manger, I am fealing more and more anger! Stop it guys! Be positive. Cum together, wright now, over Z.