Lehman Pays $846.9M To Bankruptcy Professionals Through June

By Patrick Fitzgerald Of DOW JONES DAILY BANKRUPTCY REVIEW The tab for unwinding investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEHMQ) in bankruptcy climbed to $846.9 million in June as the army of bankruptcy lawyers, consultants and financial advisers rung up another $41.6 million in fees. In papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, Lehman detailed payments to the 30 firms -- among them everything from white shoe law firms to art consultants -- working to shepherd the investment bank through the largest, and what's shaping up as the most expensive, bankruptcy case in the nation's history. Alvarez & Marsal, the restructuring firm that's winding down Lehman's operations and unraveling thousands of derivatives contracts, has been paid a total of about $311.6 million since Lehman sought Chapter 11 protection on Sept. 15, 2008. Bryan Marsal, one of the firm's founders, is serving as Lehman's chief executive. The firm is also running the asset-management unit Lehman recently spun out of its bankruptcy case. Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Lehman's bankruptcy law firm, racked up about $200.6 million in fees and expenses through June. The law firm representing Lehman's unsecured creditors committee, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, has been paid about $56.5 million. The committee's financial adviser, FTI Consulting Inc. (FCN), has taken in a total of $32.2 million. Under bankruptcy law, Lehman's bankruptcy estate is on the hook for fees and expenses of professionals working on behalf of official committees. So far, Lehman has paid Feinberg Rozen, the law firm monitoring professional fees in its Chapter 11 case, more than $1.4 million. The firm, based in Washington, D.C., is headed up by Kenneth Feinberg, who was tapped last month to oversee the $20 billion fund created by BP PLC (BP) to compensate victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Lehman has also paid art consultant Kelly Matthews Wright $64,000 through June. Since filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Lehman gradually has sold off pieces of its art collection. Last fall, 238 modern and contemporary pieces were auctioned off. That sale, which was expected to bring in $750,000, generated $1.34 million. All items were sold. Later this year, Lehman is auctioning off another collection of modern art, including pieces by Damien Hirst, Gerhard Richter, Brice Marden and Anish Kapoor. Many of the pieces come from asset-manager Neuberger Berman, the Lehman unit bought in a management-led buyout last year. The firm's co-founder Roy Neuberger is a legendary collector. A September auction at Sotheby's is expected to add millions of dollars more to the estate's coffers. Meanwhile, Lehman continues to do battle on several fronts in bankruptcy court. Lehman has paid Jones Day, the law firm that's heading up its litigation against Barclays PLC (BCS), nearly $30.2 million through June. Lehman claims Barclays reaped an undisclosed windfall when it purchased Lehman's brokerage in the days after its 2008 Chapter 11 filing, and it's trying to recoup billions of dollars in assets transferred to the U.K. bank. Lehman was the U.S.'s fourth-largest investment bank prior to its bankruptcy filing. Over the past 21 months, bankruptcy professionals have sold off a number of Lehman's most lucrative businesses while working to preserve the value of its other assets. Earlier this year, Lehman spun off an asset-management business from its Chapter 11 case. The unit, headed up by Alvarez & Marsal managing director Douglas Lambert, oversees a broad portfolio of Lehman assets. It employs about 455 people, of which 385 are Lehman Brothers employees and 70 are Alvarez & Marsal employees. (Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review covers news about distressed companies and those under bankruptcy protection.) -By Patrick Fitzgerald; Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review; 202-862-3544; patrick.fitzgerald@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 22, 2010 14:35 ET (18:35 GMT)