General Growth Properties (NYSE: GGP) has changed its bankruptcy counsel from Sidley Austin LLP to hire Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required). The latter firm has also worked on the Lehman Bros. bankruptcy.

The company has warned that it may have to file for bankruptcy if it can't find a way to restructure the more than $27 billion in debt that will come due over the next few months.

Back in January 2008, then-Marketwatch columnist Herb Greenberg raised red flags over General Growth Properties' debt load. The company responded with a press release saying that "The Company is absolutely not in any danger of having to contemplate a bankruptcy filing, and the Company unequivocally has no intention of doing so." The company added that it had assets that "can be used through a variety of means to raise substantially more capital than could be required, even under the most "doomsday" of future possible scenarios for how the current commercial retail real estate markets might evolve over the next two years."

Well here's the doomsday scenario and there are the bankruptcy lawyers. But don't worry: The press release added that "Actual results may differ materially from the results suggested by these forward-looking statements, for a number of reasons."