Sullivan & Cromwell has landed a lead role for UBS, after the Swiss National Bank and the Government of Switzerland created a fund for the bank to dump $60bn in illiquid assets, reports the Am Law Daily.

The elite US firm is advising UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, on US aspects of the bailout.

Sullivan has worked with UBS in the past, advising the bank on its $10.8bn (£6.3bn) acquisition of private banker PaineWebber in 2000. The team handling the work was led by firm chairman Rodgin Cohen.

The New York-based firm also advised UBS in April of this year when it raised $15bn (£8.7bn) in new capital to help offset some of the bank's recent $44bn (£25.5bn) in writedowns.

This summer, UBS turned to Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom litigators David Zornow and Lawrence Spiegel to represent Martin Liechti, the head of the bank's wealth management unit in the Americas. Liechti was caught up in a case filed by federal prosecutors in Florida against former UBS private banker Bradley Birkenfeld, who pled guilty in June to charges that he helped US clients hide assets from the IRS.

The Zurich-based banking giant also turned to Debevoise & Plimpton's Mary Jo White, chair of her firm's litigation department, and litigation partner Andrew Ceresney to help negotiate a $19.4bn (£11.2bn) auction-rate securities settlement with New York State and Massachusetts officials in August.

The investigation resulted in the resignation and eventual guilty plea of David Aufhauser, the general counsel of UBS's investment banking subsidiary. Aufhauser was represented by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher's Joseph Warin, co-chair of the firm's white-collar defence practice.

The Am Law Daily is the website of The American Lawyer, Legal Week's US sister title.

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