June 22, 2011 4:07 PM

Weil's Lehman Bankruptcy Fees Break the $300 Million Barrier

Posted by Brian Baxter

Big bankruptcy work in the U.S. might be slowing down, but the epic Lehman Brothers bankruptcy churns on, rewarding law firms, restructuring professionals, and vendors of all stripes.

Lehman filed its latest monthly operating report with the SEC this week, listing a fresh $53.1 million in fees and expenses paid to outside advisers for their work during May.

Leading the pack among all the professional service firms: lead bankruptcy counsel Weil, Gotshal & Manges, which received nearly $16 million for its efforts in the Chapter 11 case. (Dow Jones's Daily Bankruptcy Review first had news of Weil's latest Lehman fee filing.)

The May billings bring Weil's total haul in the case, which will be three years old in September, to $309.8 million. The billings come on the heels of the April departure of former Weil restructuring partner Shai Waisman, a key cog in the Lehman case, who left the firm to work for a claims trading operation. (Alas, we're still smarting over top Weil bankruptcy partner Harvey Miller not being cast in HBO's adaptation of Andrew Ross Sorkin's Too Big to Fail.)

Other firms racking up billables on the Lehman matter in May include conflicts counsel Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, which received another $3.6 million to bring its total fees in the case so far to nearly $31.4 million, and special Asia and domestic litigation counsel Jones Day at $2.5 million. (Jones Day's total Lehman fees now stand at $52.6 million.)

Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy billed $8.9 million in May for its work representing Lehman's unsecured creditors committee; the firm's total fees in the case have now topped $102 million. Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, conflicts counsel to creditors, billed for nearly $1.6 million in May, bringing its Lehman tab to almost $18.7 million.

Lehman announced last week that the company has increased to $65 billion the amount it expects to repay creditors in what is the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, Reuters reports.

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