"Until they can start a dialogue with the US Trustee they don't really know the extent of the uphill battle here"
Ultimately, I suppose one could say that this is a war over maximizing what is there for equity, and within that war there will be many uphill battles. Getting compensated for China is one of those (so is maximizing the value from the US 363 Sale), but the first one is getting representation at the table, so the uphill battle I was specifically referring to is getting official court recognition of an EC. Yes, a law firm can read the 8/10Ks, the documentation that has come out so far (much more will come out - specifically the Statements and Schedules) - but they are only going to put so much pro-bono time into this before they want the meter to start running. It's hard to say exactly how to approach China when we don't even know exactly what mgmt's plans are - the key is to have a voice in the process as that plan is presented to the court. Another issue that I've not seen yet is the KEIP - Key Employee Incentive Plan - an EC will try and keep this as responsible as possible. It was brought up as well today in the context of fees that the Debtors counsel and FA along with the Unsecured Creditors Committee tend to rack up much larger fees than an EC - and one job of the EC is to object to the court if and when these get egregious - these are all little battles that will come, but unless equity gets past the first uphill battle of getting recognition, the others don't even happen. What any law firm should do at this point is put in just enough time to handicap the odds of getting an EC, and once a determination is made that the odds are good, then you approach the US Trustee to try and get more color. What the US Trustee has is the power to appoint an EC, or if it refuses to exercise that power, it also has the influence to make the court process for getting an EC easier or harder. That's why they want to approach the Trustee, but they can't approach the Trustee without a client to represent. If they hit a huge stone wall with the US Trustee, I would guess they are going to want to see a kitty set up to cover some fees, if on the other hand, the US Trustee is more or less amenable to appointment, I'd guess they might spec the whole thing. For the record, I was not one that had a call with EG after the CC today, nor are they a firm I've had prior dealings with.
AI
