For close to two years, counsel for Bank of America at Cleary Gottlieb and Wachtell Lipton have been struggling--and largely failing--to tame consolidated securities, ERISA, and derivative litigation over BofA's 2008 merger with Merrill Lynch. Will Brad Karp, Ted Wells, and their partners at Paul Weiss fare any better?

Delaware Chancellor Leo Strine Jr.'s skewering of nearly everyone involved in Kinder Morgan's proposed $21 billion acquisition of El Paso makes for a great read. But it also amounts to an exercise in frustration, as even Strine was forced to admit.

Shareholders' lawyers will get to see whatever the bank has turned over to Congress, the SEC, the New York attorney general, and other investigators--including, most likely, the communications between BofA and its lawyers that have already been turned over to the government.