Legal Fee Tracker: Lawyer's 4,000 hours help Sullivan & Cromwell reach $200 mln mark in FTX case
By David Thomas
June 27 (Reuters) -Even for a busy lawyer at a big corporate law firm, billing close to 11 hours a day on a single case, five days a week for 18 months straight is no easy feat.
That's the average pace Brian Glueckstein has kept up as one of the lead lawyers in the FTX bankruptcy since it began in November 2022, according to court records though April. All those hours — including 342 in December 2022 alone — have helped his law firm Sullivan & Cromwell amass close to $200 million in billings as debtor's counsel in the sprawling case so far.
Sullivan & Cromwell's fee filings illustrate the massive, lucrative task of managing the bankruptcy of a cryptocurrency exchange whose founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison for committing one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history.
A Delaware bankruptcy judge has approved more than $171.8 million in fees for the New York-founded law firm, with another $26.8 million request pending.
Glueckstein, with a current hourly rate of $2,375, has billed more than 4,000 hours in the bankruptcy, the most of any partner at his firm, according to a Reuters analysis of monthly fee statements. He is one of hundreds of lawyers and staffers from 890-lawyer Sullivan & Cromwell who have billed more than 168,000 hours in the case altogether.
Glueckstein, who joined Sullivan & Cromwell out of New York University School of Law in 2003, did not respond to requests for comment.
A Sullivan & Cromwell spokesperson referred Reuters to its public filings in the case and said that there have been no objections lodged against its fee requests.
As its bankruptcy counsel, Sullivan & Cromwell is advising FTX as it sells assets and pursues legal claims against others in an effort to repay creditors, including its customers.
An FTX spokesperson said the law firm's fees represent "a fraction of the amounts [FTX CEO] John Ray and his team have recovered through their investigation and prosecution of recovery actions."
FTX said this week that it has recovered up to $16 billion to repay customers, including over $12 billion in cash, and it says it will repay all customer claims in full.
Since May 2023, Glueckstein has also been part of a Sullivan & Cromwell team representing fire-protection company Kidde-Fenwal Inc, a Carrier Global subsidiary that filed for bankruptcy last year, billing at least 732 hours in the case. That's an average of about 12 hours a day on the two cases together, five days a week for 11 months.
A spokesperson for Carrier Global did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fee experts said such a workload for a single lawyer was extreme, but far from unheard of when juggling one or more high-stakes assignments. The intensity required from bankruptcy practitioners depends on the case, and FTX is a "bet-the-company engagement," said Nancy Rapoport, a fee examiner and law professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Other experts noted that lawyers at large U.S. law firms often work eye-popping hours, with extreme workloads sometimes considered a badge of success.
"It brings to mind the adage that making partner is a pie-eating contest and the prize for winning is more pie," Georgetown Law professor Adam Levitin said in an email.
Before FTX's collapse, Sullivan & Cromwell had served as an outside law firm for the company and Bankman-Fried. The firm has faced scrutiny and at least one lawsuit over its pre-bankruptcy work from investors who accused it of failing to stop Bankman-Fried's $8 billion fraud.
Sullivan & Cromwell has denied any wrongdoing, and a court-appointed examiner concluded last month that the firm was not complicit in the fraud that caused the cryptocurrency exchange to collapse.
- In other legal fee news, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a challenge to a $667 million fee award for lawyers at Boies Schiller Flexner, Hausfeld and other law firms that secured a $2.7 billion antitrust settlement with Blue Cross Blue Shield in 2020.
The fee award is among the largest ever in a class action.
- U.S. law firm Motley Rice on Monday appealed its award of $396 million for its work on litigation against the drug industry over the opioid crisis that resulted in $46 billion in nationwide settlements.
The firm did not say how much it was seeking or on what basis it was challenging the award.
(Legal Fee Tracker is a weekly feature exploring attorney compensation awards and disputes in class actions, bankruptcies and other matters. Please send tips or suggestions to D.Thomas@thomsonreuters.com .)
Reporting by David Thomas
Похожие активы
Последние новости
Правовая оговорка: Компании группы XM Group предоставляют только услуги по исполнению сделок и доступ к нашей торговой онлайн-среде, в которой пользователи могут просматривать и (или) пользоваться материалами, доступными на вебсайте либо доступными по ссылкам с данного сайта на другие. Предоставление доступа к онлайн-среде не меняет сути предоставляемых услуг и не расширяет их. Такой доступ и пользование материалами предоставляются с учетом:(i) «Условий и положений»; (ii) «Предупреждений о рисках» и (iii) полного текста «Правовой оговорки». Следовательно, подобные материалы предоставляются лишь в качестве информации общего характера. В частности, просим Вас иметь в виду, что материалы, содержащиеся в нашей торговой онлайн-среде, не являются ни просьбой осуществить какие-либо транзакции на финансовых рынках, ни предложением к осуществлению подобных транзакций. Торговля на любом финансовом рынке подразумевает большой риск потери Вашего капитала.
Все материалы, опубликованные в нашей торговой среде, предоставляются только в образовательных или информационных целях и не содержат (и не должны рассматриваться как содержащие) финансовых, инвестиционных или торговых рекомендаций, а также информации о стоимости наших услуг по предоставлению доступа к рынкам, либо предложения или содействия в проведении транзакций по какому-либо финансовому инструменту или по незапрашиваемым финансовым услугам по отношению к Вам.
Любые материалы на данном вебсайте, созданные третьими лицами, а также материалы, подготовленные XM, такие как мнения экспертов, новости, исследования, анализ, котировки и другая информация, а также ссылки на сторонние сайты предоставляются в виде «как есть», как рыночная информация общего характера, и не являют собой рекомендации по инвестициям. Принимая во внимание то, что любые материалы рассматриваются как инвестиционное исследование, Вам следует учесть и принять тот факт, что никакие материалы не подготавливались и не предназначались к использованию в соответствии с правовыми нормами, способствующими независимости инвестиционных исследований. Следовательно, материалы следует рассматривать как материалы рекламного характера согласно соответствующим законам и правовым нормам. Рекомендуем Вам прочесть и уяснить для себя положения наших «Уведомления о субъективном инвестиционном исследовании» и «Предупреждения о рисках» в отношении приведённой выше информации. С этими документами можно ознакомиться здесь.
