Fees are continuing to pile up in the Sears bankruptcy, and Weil, Gotshal & Manges, the storied retail giant’s lead law firm, is under the spotlight, the American Lawyer reported. The firm caught the attention of the New York Post over a single paralegal’s busy month: 431 hours, billed at $405 per hour. That’s more than 14 hours for every day of the month. It’s also more than the billing rate for some partners at large firms. And it tops the rate earned by a number of attorneys, including shareholders, at McAndrews, Held & Malloy, the Chicago firm handling trademark issues for Sears in the Manhattan bankruptcy case. Still, the total billed by Weil’s paralegals in November—just over $500,000—is just a small sliver of the firm’s total November bill of over $10 million. The majority of that bill—$5.6 million—came from over 60 associates billing at rates between $560 and $975. Twenty-three partners and 10 Of Counsel attorneys, billing at between $1,600 and $1,025 an hour, combined to contribute $3.8 million in bills.
