FTX Bankruptcy: Counsel and Advisers Rack Up $38M in January Bills – Here's the Latest
The ongoing FTX bankruptcy saga has resulted in a staggering cost of legal fees, as revealed by recent court filings. In January alone, the total bill for legal work and expenses reached $38 million.
Among the firms involved in the case, Sullivan & Cromwell has emerged as the biggest beneficiary. As the counsel responsible for discovery, asset disposition, and asset analysis/recovery, the firm submitted an invoice for $16.8 million to cover the 14,569 hours of legal work performed in January.
This is a significant improvement for Sullivan & Cromwell, as they had faced the risk of being removed from the case in December.
The Department of Justice objected to FTX hiring the firm claiming a conflict of interest in the proceedings.
Sam Bankman-Fried further posted objections, claiming that law firm staff pressured him into declaring bankruptcy in November 2022.
However, Sullivan & Cromwell received a vote of confidence when in Late January, a Delaware Court ruled they could continue to work on the case.
Other legal firms were able to scoop smaller mouthfuls out of the pot.
Quinn Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan billed $1.4m as the Special Counsel responsible for asset analysis and recovery, alongside avoidance actions.
Meanwhile, Landis Rath & Cobb came away from January with the smallest take, charging only $663,995 for handling hearings, litigation, and asset disposition.
All in all, legal expenses accounted for just shy of $19m (around 50%).
On the financial side, industry services firm Alvarez & Marsal submitted the largest charge, billing $12.3m for a combined 5,644 hours working on avoidance action, financial analysis, and accounting.
This was followed by AlixPartners, a firm retained on the case to conduct forensic analysis on DeFi
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