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EXHIBIT
5.1
August
22, 2008
AllianceBernstein
Holding L.P.
1345
Avenue of the Americas
New York,
NY 10105
Re:
Amended and Restated 1997 Long Term Incentive Plan
Amended and Restated Century Club
Plan
Amended and Restated
AllianceBernstein Partners Compensation Plan
Amended and Restated
AllianceBernstein L.P. Financial Advisor Wealth Accumulation Plan
Dear
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am
Executive Vice President and General Counsel of AllianceBernstein Corporation,
the General Partner of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P., a Delaware limited
partnership (the “Partnership”), and have acted as counsel in connection with
the registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities
Act”), of 12,000,000 units representing assignments of beneficial ownership of
limited partnership interests in the Partnership (the “Units”) available for
award under the Amended and Restated 1997 Long Term Incentive Plan, the Amended
and Restated Century Club Plan, the Amended and Restated AllianceBernstein
Partners Compensation Plan and the Amended and Restated AllianceBernstein L.P.
Financial Advisor Wealth Accumulation Plan (the “Plans”).
As
counsel for the Partnership, I, or attorneys under my supervision, have
participated in the preparation of the Registration Statement and have examined
and relied upon such documents, opinions, precedents, records and other
materials as I have deemed necessary or appropriate to provide a basis for the
opinion set forth below. In this examination, I have assumed the
genuineness of all signatures, the authenticity of all documents submitted to me
as original documents and conformity to original documents of all documents
submitted to me as certified or photostatic copies.
Based on
the foregoing, I am of the opinion that the Units deliverable pursuant to the
Plans have been duly authorized and, when delivered in accordance with the Plans
upon receipt by the Partnership of adequate consideration therefor, will be
validly issued, fully paid and nonassessable.
I hereby
consent to the filing of this opinion with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission as an exhibit to the Registration Statement. In giving
this consent, I do not admit that I am in the category of persons whose consent
is required under Section 7 of the Securities Act.
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Very
truly yours,
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/s/ Laurence E.
Cranch
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Laurence
E. Cranch
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Executive
Vice President and General Counsel
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