Legal News

Weil Gotshal?s Next Fee Request in Lehman: $45.2 Million

By Ashby Jones

We’ll admit it: we don’t know the world of bankruptcy well enough to know what makes Harvey Miller so great. But among the things we’ve heard and read: He knows more bankruptcy law than most professors have forgotten, he works tirelessly, and has done more than anyone to make Chapter 11 a viable corporate strategy, rather than a simple way to wind up a business.

Miller, who hangs his hat at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, also knows how to make money. Just last week, James Peck, the judge in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy gave his stamp of approval to Weil’s request for $55 million in fees for work performed in the case from September of last year through January.

Now, Miller and his merry gang are at it again. On Monday, Weil requested an additional $45.2 million in legal fees for work performed in Lehman. The work is for four months, from February through May. Click here for the report, from Mike Spector at the WSJ’s Deal Journal; here for the fee request itself.

Weil’s initial request was approved by Peck, despite mild objections made by Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration’s pay czar. The head of Feinberg’s committee said Weil ought to limit meal costs to $20 a person, provide more detail for hotel charges exceeding $500 a day and only allow car services after 8 p.m. – limiting those trips to $100. (In our minds, these hardly seem like unreasonable requests.)

Mindful of this, in Monday's filing, Weil said it would "supplement" its second compensation application before a pay hearing "to the extent necessary" to "assure compliance with the directions of the Fee Committee."

Weil said it worked more than 86,000 hours on Lehman's case in the latest four-month request period and had to deal with more than 1,030 legal motions, notice, applications, objections, briefs, orders and other pleadings in the matter. The firm said it ultimately reviewed three million documents related to requests from the examiner in the case.

According to the filing, Miller put in a goodly amount of time on the case from February through May — some 236 hours. But partner Shai Waisman turned out to be the thoroughbred on Lehman, billing 631 hours on the case. For Waisman’s work alone, the firm is requesting $488,870 in fees.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on August 18, 2009 (boomark / email).