KATHY PATRICK HIGHLIGHTED IN NLJ’S “COUNSEL TO COUNSEL” FEATURE BY PIMCO’S GC

The National Law Journal  recently presented “America’s 50 Outstanding General Counsel” report highlighting some of the most “important companies and organizations in the world” and the general counsels who “exemplify top lawyering skills and professionalism.”  PIMCO’s General Counsel, David Flattum, was among the in-house lawyers featured.  In a companion piece to this NLJ feature, “Counsel to Counsel,” Flattum shares his thoughts about Gibbs & Bruns’ Kathy Patrick:

From the nation’s mortgage-backed securities meltdown emerged one of the country’s toughest litigators, a lawyer whom Forbes magazine called, “the woman Wall Street fears most”: Kathy Patrick.

Bank of America may well agree.

Patrick, a partner at Houston-based firm Gibbs & Bruns, was a tenacious force in a legal battle against formidable banks, waging to recoup some of the billions lost by investors who were sold badly underwritten mortgage securities by Countrywide Financial, which Bank of America bought in 2008

Representing Pacific Investment Management Co., with leadership and guidance from PIMCO Global General Counsel David Flattum and PIMCO attorneys, the team secured in January an $8.5 billion settlement from Countrywide and Bank of America—the largest settlement ever in U.S. private litigation.

“Kathy is a very persuasive advocate,” said Flattum.

As outside counsel for PIMCO, Patrick also has been front and center in helping negotiate $14 billion in settlements between PIMCO and J.P. Morgan, Citigroup Inc. and Residential Capital LLC. “To date, our work with David’s team at PIMCO has led to hundreds of millions in securities recoveries,” Patrick said.

Their collaboration began when PIMCO, along with other institutional investors, held the sponsor, trustee, accountants and underwriters responsible for fraud in connection with a health care receivable securitization, Flattum said.

Patrick “is great at holding a group of industry players together,” Flattum said.

The respect is mutual. “Under David’s leadership, PIMCO has been an industry leader in demanding remedies for investors who have suffered losses on securitization transactions,” said Patrick, who has represented PIMCO for more than 10 years.

Only seven outside lawyers were profiled in the “Counsel to Counsel” feature which was dedicated to “describing the pivotal contributions made by the outside counsel they recruited for their blockbuster litigation wins and deals.”

Read more here.