The official keeping an eye on the professional fee meter in the Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. bankruptcy says the recent hourly rate increases at various law firms working on the case — some of which brought top rates close to the $1,500-per-hour mark — deserve a deeper dive, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Nancy Rapoport, a law professor and independent member of the committee monitoring professionals’ fees, says that the four-figure rates themselves aren’t necessarily the issue. Rather, “the controlling issue here is whether the clients of those firms are paying those rates,” she wrote, requesting evidence that a firm’s bankruptcy and non-bankruptcy clients alike each pay those rates — i.e., that there is no bankruptcy premium. Rapoport’s remarks came in conjunction with the fee committee’s review of the third round of fee applications in Caesars Entertainment’s chapter 11 case, filed in court this week. She said that the latest bills in the casino company’s $18 billion restructuring “triggered fewer areas of concern” than prior bills but still required some fee reductions tied to staffing and expenses like travel, hotels and meals.
