“There are going to be claims, but it’s not going to be billion-dollar litigation,” says Columbia Law professor John C. Coffee. “This is medium-sized litigation that will probably go to relatively small firms. I don’t think there are enough assets left. It’s a lean and starved corpse.”
Coffee doesn’t anticipate any Madoff-related financial recovery to top $20 million, making it relatively small potatoes compared to other legal issues involving the global financial meltdown.
With the Madoff funds looking like a recovery dead-end for investors who lost millions, several litigators have said that they plan to try to recover investor funds from the third-party institutions that funneled money to Madoff, such as banks, hedge funds and investment firms.
It remains to be seen how lucrative such third-party suits will be. Stanford Law professor Robert Weisberg said litigation over the Madoff fraud may prove to be a “loss leader,” meaning firms won’t make much money trying to recover investors’ funds. But the publicity of being involved in such a high-profile case could make it worthwhile for firms in the long run.
“I think there are firms that are doing this on spec. They are circulating their businesses cards,” Weisberg said. “Getting your name out there is important, even if there isn’t much potential for recovery.”