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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cactus Jack who wrote (156820)	12/30/2008 9:03:28 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 361700

Sidley Asks $1,100 Hourly for Tribune Bankruptcy Work By Linda Sandler and Lindsay Fortado Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Lawyers at Sidley Austin are asking as much as $1,100 an hour for bankruptcy work on Tribune Co., surpassing the rates charged by Weil, Gotshal & Manges in the Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. case, the largest in history. Partners at Sidley, where President-elect Barack Obama once worked and met his wife-to-be Michelle, are charging $575 to $1,100 an hour, according to a Dec. 26 filing by Tribune seeking court approval of the rates. The Chicago-based newspaper publisher is asking permission to pay Sidley counsels and senior counsels $400 to $875 hourly. “That’s the highest hourly rate I have seen or heard of for a bankruptcy lawyer,” said Lynn LoPucki, who teaches bankruptcy law at the University of California at Los Angeles. “For the past 11 years the fees of bankruptcy professionals have been steadily rising -- through good times and bad.” Weil Gotshal partners led by Harvey Miller charge $650 to $950 an hour on Lehman, which filed the biggest bankruptcy in history Sept. 15 with $613 billion in debt. Tribune, which filed for bankruptcy Dec. 8, less than a year after being taken private by real-estate billionaire Sam Zell, also sought court approval to pay Sidley $240 to $650 an hour for associates, and $95 to $385 an hour for paraprofessionals. First-Year Associate Obama was a law student when he took a summer job at Sidley, where Michelle was a first-year associate, she told CBS’s “60 Minutes” television program on Dec. 28. The date was 1989, according to the Washington Post. The fees are U.S. rates starting Jan. 1, according to the filing. James Conlan, co-chairman of Chicago-based Sidley’s bankruptcy group, didn’t return a call and e-mail seeking comment. “Billing rates are that high in some boutique practice areas, but they rarely have to be disclosed like in bankruptcy filings,” said Bruce MacEwen, a legal consultant based in New York. Sidley, an 1,800-lawyer firm, requested fees of $575 to $1,000 an hour earlier this year for partners to advise Hilex Poly Co. in its bankruptcy, according to court filings. The Hartsville, South Carolina-based maker of plastic bag and film products sought protection in May. Zell’s buyout of Tribune saddled the company with $12.9 billion of debt and it tumbled into bankruptcy as U.S. newspaper advertising sales plunged at an accelerating rate. Zell, 67, is chairman of Equity Group Investments LLC, a real- estate investing firm. Tom Cole, Sidley’s chairman, advised Tribune when Zell took it private last year. Sidley also previously worked for Zell on business unrelated to Tribune, according to the filing. The law firm is advising General Growth Properties Inc., a real-estate investment trust that is trying to restructure its debt, General Growth has said. In the year before its bankruptcy, Tribune paid Sidley almost $3 million in fees plus $51,616 in expenses for restructuring work and preparation of filings, according to the filing. Those sums were taken out of advance retainers of $4.5 million paid on Nov. 24 and Dec. 4, Tribune said. The case is In re Tribune Co., 08-13141, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington). To contact the reporters on this story: Linda Sandler in New York at lsandler@bloomberg.net; Lindsay Fortado in New York at lfortado@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: December 30, 2008 17:16 EST