An Iowa judge overseeing the bankruptcy of aerospace-parts manufacturer Wellman Dynamics Corp. called a legal bill from Weil, Gotshal & Manges “staggering” and cut the firm’s million-dollar payment in half, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. Judge Anita Shodeen said the New York law firm charged an unreasonable amount of money for work on the struggling manufacturer’s bankruptcy during September and October. The firm represents the company’s biggest lender, a TerraMar Capital affiliate, which is owed more than $30 million and has fought to purchase its operations. “Based simply upon the number of attorneys and hours billed leads to the inherent conclusion that there was a distinct lack of billing judgment” by the firm, she wrote. The ruling said the firm could charge roughly half of its $1,040,591.92 bill. The borrowing deal between Wellman Dynamics and the TerraMar Capital affiliate says that Wellman Dynamics has to cover the lender’s attorney’s fees and expenses. During a hearing in January, a lawyer in the U.S. Trustee’s Program called the bill from Weil “the most overblown fee application I’ve ever seen in the Southern District of Iowa.” With 16 lawyers involved, the firm billed for nearly 100 hours’ worth of “interoffice communications” among them. The firm previously defended the billing hours, saying that the bankruptcy case is complex and required time to evaluate Wellman Dynamics’ property value and financial problems. “In comparison to any other large chapter 11 case, Weil’s description of [the company’s] case as exceedingly complex … is overstated,” Judge Shodeen said.
