Courts slashes bankruptcy fees in retiree case

“The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court’s decision to slash White & Case’s legal fee in a bankruptcy-related case from $5.5 million to $1.8 million, criticizing the firm’s fees as excessive.” The prominent law firm “made the fee request in 1999 in connection with its representation of 25,000 retirees from […]

“The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court’s decision to slash White & Case’s legal fee in a bankruptcy-related case from $5.5 million to $1.8 million, criticizing the firm’s fees as excessive.” The prominent law firm “made the fee request in 1999 in connection with its representation of 25,000 retirees from the textile manufacturer St. Louis-based Monsanto, which later spun off into the company Solutia, also of St. Louis. Solutia subsequently filed for bankruptcy and sought to alter Monsanto retirees’ benefits.” White & Case was asking as much as $370 an hour for some of its lawyers’ time, although one of the nation’s most prominent plaintiff’s lawyers, Frederic Levin of Pensacola, Fla., was contenting himself with $250 an hour for his work in the same case. (Julie Kay, “White & Case to Get Less Than Half Its Bill for Bankruptcy Case”, Miami Daily Business Review, Jan. 10). More on bankruptcy fees: Sept. 22, 2004 and links from there.

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