Law firm Kirkland & Ellis charged Voyager Digital $1.1 million in legal fees for the work done on the crypto lender’s bankruptcy case in April.
Some of the firm’s highest-paid partners are charging upwards of $2,000 an hour for their work on the case, while some billed hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees for the month.
George W. Hicks Jr., P.C, one of Kirkland & Ellis’ litigation partners, billed $153,211 in fees across 87.8 hours of work, while Nicholas Adzima, an associate, billed 118 hours and totaled $147,906 in compensation for the month.
Kirkland & Ellis is one of the world’s largest law firms, bringing in over $6 billion in revenue. It’s representing a number of crypto companies in restructuring that fell into Chapter 11 during the bear market of 2022, including Celsius and BlockFi.
The series of bankruptcies brought on by the 2022 bear market has been a bull market for law firms. As CoinDesk previously reported, FTX’s bankruptcy fees have already topped $200 million, while Celsius has already racked up over $50 million in fees in its proceedings.
Some critics have pointed out that the long processes and high legal fees mean that creditors lose out as the dwindling pot of money is eaten up by attorney fees.
Voyager bankruptcy claims are currently trading at 40 cents on the dollar on X-Claim, a bankruptcy claim trading marketplace, while FTX is trading at 28.25 cents, and Celsius at 28.5 cents.
