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By Steve Slater
LONDON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - From his 23rd floor office ofCiti's Canary Wharf tower, Tom Bolland can see the old EuropeanHQ of Lehman Brothers, where five years ago hundreds of hisformer colleagues were abruptly turfed out onto the streetcarrying their belongings in boxes.
The investment bank's collapse was the symbolic moment ofthe financial crisis, and it is a surprise to many that LehmanBrothers in Europe still lives on. It is under administrators,but two-thirds of its 500 staff are former Lehman employeeshelping to clear up the mess that is left.
"You work for Lehman? I thought that went bust," Bollandlaughs at the typical response when he tells people he works forLehman Brothers. "Most people are still surprised."
Bolland is the most senior of the "ex-Lehmanites" andrecently celebrated 20 years with the bank - including 15 yearspre-crash in a range of senior roles, which included overseeingits expansion in Russia, Turkey and the Middle East.
Now chief operating officer for Lehman BrothersInternational Europe (LBIE), he and more than 350 others weredrafted in by Tony Lomas, joint administrator and PwC partner,to accelerate the wind-down of the business and maximise theassets that can be recovered.
"Yeah, you are working yourself out of a job. But you go outwith an enhanced CV. And if you were at Lehman before you go outwith your head held high, because you stayed and returned thismoney to the creditors," Bolland told Reuters.
Lomas expects to repay creditors fully and said the integration of LBIE staff with 200 PwC employees has beencrucial to that success.
They take up three floors in Citigroup's London tower,less than 200 metres from the site Lehman occupied from April2004 and now home to JPMorgan.
"A lot of people walked out with the cardboard box, but wereback in two days later," Bolland said. Many had not realised theskills that administrators would need to unravel thousands ofcomplex trades across dozens of countries and legal entities.
That has included disputes with other parts of the formerLehman group. In bankruptcy, each entity fights for itself.
"In the beginning it was a bit strange. People you hadworked with, you were disagreeing with and over time you werenegotiating with. There was no fundamental ill-will and if youwin a legal argument you win it, that's life. It's commercial,not personal," Bolland said.
Finance, operations, legal, risk and asset valuation expertsall stayed, or were hired in the months after collapse.
Lehman's operations had also shared an IT system, but thathad to be separated and rebuilt.
"It was the biggest IT project Lehman had ever undertaken,and we had to do inside the administration. It has been anenormous task operationally, apart from the legal and valuationissues and negotiations," Bolland said.
Staff have been paid at commercial rates. They know fewerpeople will be needed as the major work slows and Bolland saidLBIE will have a lot fewer staff by the end of next year.
He said the work has been good experience for mid-levelstaff, and "rewarding and satisfying" for the senior people.
"People were proud to work for Lehman. A lot of the peoplewho stayed on, part of the reason was to do the right thing."
For other stories on Lehman Brothers:
Five years after Lehman, risk moves into the shadows
In post-Lehman clean-up, top banker prosecutions stumble
Hedge funds reap rewards from bet on Lehman Europe carcass
