My Lehman Story

September 18, 2018

As this past weekend marked the 10th anniversary of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy and the crisis of the century, I would like to share my own Lehman story and the transatlantic journey this unique company made possible for me. I also want to thank all the great people I had the joy and privilege to work with earlier on in my career.

It all started for me in the mid 90’s, while I was still in my early 20’s. As I was finishing my military service in France, Lehman offered me my very first job. I switched uniforms basically and joined their European Fixed Income middle office and process-reengineering group, a hybrid operational and project team directly connected to the trading floor. Lehman’s Paris entity had just been granted the official status of dealer in agency bonds by the French government. To celebrate the exciting news, the Chief Operating Officer, a cultured American expat living in Paris, hosted a cocktail party at his own place and invited the whole staff over. That was my first week on the job. I had an engaging conversation with him and found out he actually did not have an MBA but a degree in landscape architecture, yet was given the opportunity by the company to work his way up to higher management with assignments in New York, London and Paris. His career profile, apparently quite a perfect example of “promise realized,” inspired me considerably as I thought of my own international career aspirations. Since I was fluent in English, having attended a bilingual school in my formative years and been a visitor to the US quite often, I would later frequently travel to London’s European headquarters in my capacity as a continental liaison to receive training on new systems and processes before customizing them to meet the local needs of the Paris office.

Less than three years after joining the Lehman Paris office, I had the opportunity to export my job overseas and was offered a L-1 intra-company transfer work visa to relocate to the New York headquarters, joining their Emerging Markets operations. I had studied in New York in the past, completing an international exchange program at Columbia University, and had since become fascinated with the infectious energy and vibrant diversity this cosmopolitan city had to offer. So, moving there this time with a solid job at a reputable company was like a dream come true. My father, a talented floral artist and hard-working small business owner, was ecstatic too and so proud. Before I embarked on a one-way flight from CDG (Charles de Gaule) to JFK (John Fitzgerald Kennedy), my parents graciously hosted a really cool farewell / bon voyage party and invited my co-workers and the managers who supported my international mobility. A big Frank Sinatra fan as well as a sultry-voiced singer in her own right, my glamorous mother entertained the guests and, for that very special occasion, she freely interpreted the New York New York theme song and stressed that famous line : "If you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere, it's up to you...."

My first working year in the States was a bit challenging not only culturally but also economically. Nevertheless, my welcoming new colleagues were fortunately always supportive and helped me make a smooth transition. The solid knowledge of proprietary systems and operating models I had previously acquired working at LBIE (Lehman Brothers International Europe) was well-regarded and appreciated, especially when applied to supporting and risk-managing the booming yet volatile Emerging Markets business. I remember my first summer as a New York resident being both festive and stressful. Indeed, just a few weeks after I was cheering for France when my home country won its first FIFA World Cup on Bastille Day and watching the historic final game on a giant screen in Central Park, both the Russian and Turkish financial crises hit the market in August of 1998. In addition to the heat, that was a "trial of fire." Little did I know, though, that further hardships would come later.

When I unexpectedly and abruptly lost my father in a tragic road accident in Paris, the company let me take a long leave of absence so I could take care of things overseas and grieve with my devastated mother. I remember receiving countless touching letters, flowers and prayers from various employees and managers, offering me and my family their sincere condolences, deep sympathy and help. We were overwhelmed with gratitude. When my widowed mother came to visit me in New York again, the repo trader I worked with ordered a limousine car service to pick her up at the airport and bought us a night on the town with tickets to a Broadway show as he knew she loved musical theater.

Then came a more collective major tragedy with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which my colleagues and I closely witnessed working and being evacuated from the American Express tower, which was not far from the Twin Towers. Since our site was damaged and no longer accessible, and employees were traumatized at the thought of going back there anyway, the company put in place an impressive recovery plan to resume business as usual, first by operating out of our Jersey City office, then by finding a new building at a midtown Manhattan location. My managers and peers demonstrated tremendous dedication and team spirit. As office space was limited during the first few recovery weeks, I remember having to share a desktop computer with a female co-worker and condense my day-to-day tasks in half of the usual time. We coached each other to be more efficient and stress-resistant while always remaining civil and kind towards one another. This strangely reminded me of my days in the army, when I had to combine discipline and esprit de corps. We knew we were a lot more fortunate than other financial services employees who had either lost their lives or families in the tragedy, and that put things into their just perspective. The general tone of this challenging period made me think of Ernest Hemingway’s quote: “Courage is Grace under Pressure.”

As the company also kindly sponsored my green card, I became a permanent US resident in 2005, pretty much around the same time I celebrated my own 10-year Lehman anniversary. While I became more senior at my job and in the industry, I was perceived as a "jack of all trades" and got involved in exciting transversal projects and initiatives. When, for instance, my direct managers asked me to travel to London on an emergency rescue mission to resolve a critical accounting break and gap in operational risk impacting a Euro-zone funding unit, I was given a fair amount of recognition and praise, as well as a promotion, because of my success in having orchestrated all at once a difficult reconciliation, an ambitious transformation project and a great exercise in strategic communication. I was told by the more senior director that I had done a "fantastic job" and become the “rock star” of the department. Coming from a highly dedicated and respected professional who, in his spare time, actually played electric guitar, his compliment struck an even more resonant “chord.” As for my direct supervisor, a good-natured supermom and passionate golfer, who had done a lot to keep my career on track, she was, in her own colorful words, more than ever my "biggest fan." From that point on, because of their continued confidence in my analytical and communication skills, my managers always selected me to resolve complex situations and report on them. “You make us look good,” I was often told, a comment both metaphorical and literal in scope because I also occasionally provided tie-knotting and fashion tips to some of my male co-workers. 

When it came to more social, philanthropic and “extra-curricular” domains, Lehman was a pretty open environment. As diversity became a hot topic in HR, I envisioned creating a network specially tailored for international employees. My goal was to focus on cultural awareness and integration, organize forums and publish newsletters featuring employee success stories and business community leaders in order to eventually develop an influential center of excellence pairing both expatriated and locally hired foreign national employees. After just sending an internal memo entitled LINK as in Lehman International NetworK (no copyright infringement with Linkedin), I was able to present my project in front of the global diversity committee. The initiative aroused interest and gained followers in different divisions and regions. The London-based joint-head of Global Investment Banking and Capital Markets, a former Lehman Paris trader, even endorsed the project and personally received me in his office as he just loved the idea: "C'est génial!" In the summer of 2006, I also started embracing my musical passion more and pursuing a pop-jazz singing-songwriting career on the side. My colleagues thought it was “cool” and frequently came to my concerts to support me and my creative work. Last but not least, around the same time, as a European coffee snob, I installed a Nespresso machine in an office I shared with a senior Vice President who often worked remotely from North Carolina. My door was always open and I made the machine accessible to all my colleagues and visitors. I just asked them to contribute to its maintenance and supply of capsules and accessories by dropping a single dollar donation in a bucket each time they used it. Referring to my musical artist moniker, this quickly became ? Pascalito’s Café Lounge.? I did not make a profit or put the nearby Starbucks out of business, but it surely created a nice convivial atmosphere where people chatted openly and shared stories. Diversity, jazzy world music and good coffee, what more can you ask for? :-)

A bit of rain fell on my parade, though, when in April 2008, six months before the bankruptcy was declared, I experienced my first American lay-off. I was part of the second 5% wave of staff reduction. Having come from Europe and worked at the firm for nearly 13 years total, being told to leave the company the same day I received the news ("Today is your last day...") was brutal, a cold shower as they say. Yet I was quite lucky. Not only did I receive a good severance package with benefits based on my seniority, along with a coaching program provided by a partner outplacement agency, but I also received the kind support of my managers, who freely offered their references. Despite the potential difficulties they had imposed upon me, I knew it was not an easy decision for them to make. As for the outplacement program, I still vividly remember the opening statement delivered by a superbly eloquent and elegant woman, a Wall Street seasoned professional turned motivational coach, encouraging her sponsored clients to become “serial networkers”: “You have lost your job, but you have NOT lost your skills and DO NOT lose your structure!”

Thanks to the combined efforts of a French friend pretty well-established in the industry, a former JP Morgan VP turned headhunter and an ex-Lehman colleague, I quickly landed on my feet and found a project manager job at Deutsche Bank less than two months after my separation. I was working at my new company for a few months when I heard the news that Lehman was going to file Chapter 11. I was so shocked and sad. I immediately called some of my former co-workers to see how they were doing. Later, I found out that fortunately most of them had been able to transition and keep their jobs in a more or less similar capacity when Barclays acquired some of Lehman US Capital Markets activities. Working in the derivatives world at DB, my whole department was in turmoil when the Credit Default Swap crisis hit Wall Street and the name of my former company was shouted out at least 100 times a day up to a point that one day while picking up the phone, I greeted my caller by accidentally saying: "Lehman!" 

In 2009, in the middle of the ongoing financial crisis, I was laid off again as nearly half of my department was outsourced to India. I remained unemployed for a few months, decided to take a break to focus more on my writing and music until a younger colleague who used to work for me called me out of the blue and asked me to come interview for Lehman. I had to have him repeat the name a couple of times and asked: "You mean Barclays, right?" He said, "No, dude, Lehman, the estate." Even if Lehman's stock had dramatically tanked, the company still had several billions worth of assets on its balance sheet and thousands, millions of transactions frozen, unsettled and claimed as of the bankruptcy date. Alvarez and Marsal (A&M), a firm specializing in bankruptcy management, had been appointed to unwind the company and rebranded the institution "LAMCO," as in Legacy Asset Management Company. The executive steering committee tried to hire people with specialized skills, ideally seeking former Lehman senior employees to build a dream team. My ex-colleague had spoken highly of me to his boss and told him he had basically learned everything from me. I was very touched and was hired on the spot. The first item I set up on my new yet vintage Lehman desk was my recession-proof and security-cleared Nespresso machine that was still working like a charm. A friendly and witty A&M Canadian manager spotted it and, later, decided to bring his own matching Aeroccino milk frother so we could also make cappuccinos. As this seasoned bankruptcy expert punningly put it, when you "unwind," you need the full arsenal. I worked there for almost three years, interacting with high-caliber finance professionals and also lawyers and consultants (and coffee drinkers, too!) The work was challenging and interesting and the environment was unusually laid-back and informal. Networking was great, too. I loved it. Besides, I had some spare time after work to focus on my music again. My second CD release was getting good press and my colleagues were supportive by following my live performances and playing my recording work. Towards the end of my employment there, I was this time given a few months’ notice that my contract would not be renewed after I completed all my pending assignments. It is hard to fathom, but I was offered a bonus and even another severance package, a nice way to have some real “closure” with Lehman! 

During this assignment, I also fomented my transition into consulting and the year after, I worked as a lead change consultant at Barclays, conducting a critical regulatory audit required by the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission). A warm recommendation from my former Lehman managers holding high positions at Barclays helped me get the gig. That same year, I also became a naturalized US citizen at a special ceremony held during the week of Independence Day, just a few months before president Barack Obama was reelected. The event was officiated by Hilda Solis, the US Secretary of Labor then and the first Latin woman to ever hold such a high federal position. I was selected among twenty other "immigrants" based on the "uniqueness" of our countries of origin and "accomplishments" in our respective professional fields. I felt quite honored, of course, but also pretty humbled and intimidated sitting next to a Nigerian-born Air Force-trained pilot, a female oncologist from the Philippines or a civil engineer from India, just to mention a few of the highly qualified and talented foreign nationals in the room. This was one of the highlights of my adult life in New York City and it surely would not have been possible had Lehman not previously sponsored my green card and brought me over to this country in the first place.

To this day, I have always remained a proud Lehman alumnus. The company was obviously a big part of my life and helped me become who I am now, a dual French-American citizen, an adopted New Yorker with extensive international financial experience and solid professional references. It fostered my entrepreneurship too. I will forever be grateful. Lehman was by far the greatest work culture and collaborative spirit I have ever been exposed to and infected by. You can take people out of Lehman, but you can’t take Lehman out of its people!

I know this anniversary is technically not a happy one, especially for other colleagues who were not as fortunate as I was, who lost a lot in the process when the US government did not bail the bank out then. Yet I want to cherish and celebrate the memories I collected working with such bright and inspiring people, whose precious life lessons made me become more resilient and self-reliant in the long run. Let’s toast to the spirit of our former camaraderie and be happy that we have all had the great privilege to belong to this unique network and community. “Bleed Lehman Green,” referring to the color of the corporate logo, used to be the informal motto within the firm. Renewable or "reinventable" energy? As I was putting old belongings away, I recently retrieved the Lehman hat I was given when I first joined the company. My green-blooded Kermit-the-frog avatar (photographed above), my daughter's favorite puppet, now wears it with pride and panache. Let the flow go again. By all means let’s remember the good old days as we look ahead to a hopefully brighter future. Cheers to you, my Lehman friends and extended family!

Pascalito

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Disclaimer: this article is not sponsored by Nespresso Inc. ;-)

Special thanks to my American uncle, writing mentor and editor, professor Robert F. Cohen

 About the author: Pascal Lorenzo Sabattier is a French-American consultant, contributing writer and translator who divides his time between New York and Paris. He has worked for several major investment banks including Lehman Brothers (1995-2008 / 2009-2012), Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Société Générale and BNP Paribas. Performing and recording under the moniker Pascalito, he is also a pop-jazz vocalist, songwriter and bandleader who has released four albums, produced by his independent label Neostalgia Music. Some of his original works have been licensed and featured in the cable network TV shows: Burn Notice (USA), Damages (FX) and NCIS Los Angeles (CBS).