THE ECONOMIST- September 10th, 2009
“Boom, bust, bonanza
Sep 10th 2009 | NEW YORK
From The Economist print edition
Court-awarded fees disadvantage creditors
EVEN the darkest cloud has a silver lining. Just ask the insolvency lawyers and other professionals who are raking in the fees from the fast-growing number of large financial and corporate bankruptcies. None is doing better than Weil, Gotshal & Manges, the lead law firm in the clean-up at Lehman Brothers. It has requested more than $100m in fees in the case so far. Over half of that has already been approved by the presiding judge. In the four months to May, the most recent period billed for , Weil’s lawyers worked 86,000 hours on Lehman, with the most senior partners getting around $1,000 per hour. They spent an estimated $692,000 on computer research and $224,000 on photocopies.“
“…bankruptcy judges routinely authorise fee practices that violate America’s bankruptcy code.“
Summit 1031 is Oregon News –
LandAmerica is the 1031 Exchange Company – National News
“There are signs of pushback. In August, for instance, creditors of LandAmerica, a bust insurer, filed more than two dozen objections to fee requests of four law firms working in the case. The Obama administration is talking to fee-auditing firms about vetting bills incurred by its rescue programmes. Until courts tighten their scrutiny of fees, creditors have good reason to stay vigilant themselves”
