LUCITE.

LUCITE. The February 11 Wall Street Journal had an article on the decline of about 50% in sales of “deal toys.” A “deal toy” is a memento of a large transaction, an acquisition, say, or a large financing. It is generally made of Lucite, a clear plastic, with the particulars of the transaction inscribed in it and perhaps a symbol of the deal inside the Lucite (for example, a toy for a George Foreman related financing was shaped like a grill). Deal toy sales are down because there are fewer deals and because of cost cutting efforts (Lehman Brothers had a full-time employee with a title of assistant vice president who designed deal toys; Bear Stearns had budgeted hundreds of thousands of dollars for deal toys). When Annalisa visited my office as a little girl, she was excited by all the deal toys, but asked why all the other lawyers “had more prizes.” I didn’t know how to explain that I had spent a lot of years doing litigation, and litigators don’t have deal toys.