Just a week after Lehman Brothers declared what some call the biggest bankruptcy in US history, there are already signs of major M&A deals taking place.

Skadden partner Nicholas Norris acted for Nomura Holdings on its successful US$225m (A$270m) acquisition of Lehman's Asia-Pacific assets in Japan and Australia. He said the deal required great speed "in order to give comfort to Lehman's employees that Nomura would take over the company".

Lehman's bankruptcy has created significant uncertainty over the future of thousands of its employees, of which 145 are in-house lawyers working at its Canary Wharf office in the UK.

Skadden's UK office handled London aspects of the liquidation and referred the Asia-Pacific sale to its Hong Kong office. The Asia-Pacific sale includes 3,000 employees and is understood to have gone for significantly lesser value than the initially estimated US$1.4bn (A$1.7bn). The acquisition came after British bank Barclays took over parts of Lehman's US business, but decided not to pursue any further acquisitions.

Market speculation suggests that Nomura may also consider acquiring Lehman's European businesses.

Nomura declined to comment on the Asia-Pacific sale and speculation over its European acquisitions.