The Wall Street Journal had a nice lead story Thursday about the legal fees being paid to Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, as the debtor counsel to Lehman Brothers Holdings.
Earlier this week, Weil Gotshal asked a federal bankruptcy judge in New York to approve a $55.1 million payment. Harvey Miller, who is leading the Weil team, is being paid $950 an hour, and has booked 750 hours between September 15, 2008 and January 31, 2009.
Miller's hourly rate may sound like alot of money, but in fact Miller, who is sometimes referred to as the dean of the bankruptcy bar, barely cracks the top 10 of hourly fees for debtor counsel that The Deal tracks in our bankruptcy section of The Deal Pipeline.
Topping the list at $980/hour is Mark Thompson of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, who is representing Qimonda Richmond, a semiconductor manufacturer that filed Chapter 11 in February. David Lieberman, who is working on the same deal for Simpson Thacher, also makes more per hour than Miller, at $960/hour. Two other Simpson lawyers are also making $960/hour as debtor counsel for bus maker Motor Coach Industries International Inc., which filed on September 15, 2008. - Tom Groppe
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This matter can be easily resolved for both the debtor and creditors by appointing a fee examiner to througly audit all fees and expenses. This process will insure that all case professionals have complied with the courts billing guidelines. This service will assist the judge and bankrutcy trustees to fullfill their respective statutory obligations. The court has such an onerous task just overseeing the legal process and generally does not have the time or resources necessary to comb through all the volumnous bills produced by the lawyers,accountants and other experts. Plain and simple it's just the right thing to do to insure that the remaining assets of Lehman Brothers are preserved to the fullest extent possible.