Alison Frankel-

Last week, when I wrote about the impact of Syncora’s $375 million settlement with Bank of America, I had a bit of an existential crisis. Sources kept telling me that the mortgage-backed securities litigation between the bond insurer and Countrywide was more of a sideshow than the main event, and that business considerations, not developments in the breach-of-contract case, drove the settlement. You can imagine how that made me feel, considering the brain cells I’ve sacrificed to coverage of monoline put-back litigation. Has all this fulmination — not just by me, but by dozens of lawyers getting paid millions for their trouble — been for naught?

I still don’t know the answer, but I’ve perked up again, thanks to a letter MBIA’s lawyers at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan sent to New York State Supreme Court Justice Eileen Bransten on Wednesday afternoon. Quinn Emanuel wants Bransten’s permission to file a motion to lift the seal on expert reports, deposition testimony by bank executives and the documents accompanying the reports and depositions. It’s a purely tactical play by MBIA, but the letter is a reminder that litigation occasionally shines a megawatt light on information that businesses would rather keep locked away in a dark closet.

[REUTERS LEGAL]

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