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Public Symbol in Private Contract: A Case Study aNNA gELPERN mITU gULATI( Abstract This article revisits a recent shift in standard form sovereign bond contracts to promote collective action among creditors. Major press outlets welcomed the shift as a milestone in fighting financial crises that threatened the global economy. Officials said it was a triumph of market forces. We turned to it for insights into contract change and crisis management. This article is based on our work in the sovereign debt community, including over 100 interviews with investors, lawyers, economists, and government officials. Despite the publicity surrounding contract reform, in private few participants described the substantive change as an effective response to financial crises; many said it was simply unimportant. They explained their own participation in the shift as a mix of symbolic gesture and political maneuver, designed to achieve goals apart from solving the technical problems for which the new contract terms offered a fix.  Table of Contents Abstract 1 I. Introduction 3 II. The Setting 8 A. Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt: Actors and Contracts 8 B. Meet the Clauses 15 III. Official Stories and Published Explanations 20 A. Fear of SDRM 20 B. U.S. Pressure 21 C. G-10 Expert Drafting Group 21 D. Law Firms 22 E. Lee Buchheit 23 F. Big Institutional Investors 23 G. Trade Associations 24 H. Pre-Emption 24 I. Argentina 25 J. “Prehistoric” CACs and Inadvertence 25 IV. The Interviews 26 A. SDRM: The Phantom Menace 27 B. Invisible Hands 41 C. Ritual Experts 60 D. Product Design 70 E. Great Men and Little Funds 78 F. The Ultimate Market Story 92 G. At the Tipping Point 98 H. The Meaning of Argentina 109 I. The 1997-2001 Shift in England: Inadvertence or Market Response? 112 V. Conclusions 115  Introduction In June 1997 a developing country defied convention. It issued New York law bonds that let 75 percent of the bondholders change key financial terms. Until then, standard for