Recently the Office of the U.S. Trustee issued new guidelines for the payment of attorneys’ fees and expenses in Chapter 11 cases with $50 million or more in assets and $50 million or more in liabilities. According to K&L Gates’ Trey Monsour, compliance will be subjective and likely expensive for attorneys in large Chapter 11 cases, with the debtor ultimately bearing the additional costs.
On June 11, 2013, the Office of the United States Trustee issued new guidelines for the payment of attorneys’ fees and expenses in Chapter 11 cases with $50 million or more in assets and $50 million or more in liabilities. The promulgation of the guidelines followed two comment periods spanning over one year.
These guidelines will apply to cases filed after November 1, 2013. The stated goals of these guide-lines are to ensure that 1) bankruptcy attorneys are subject to the same accountability as non-bankruptcy attorneys, 2) fees sought to be paid are reasonable and necessary as compared with the market, and 3) billing practices are transparent. The United States Trustee hopes that the guidelines will also encourage discipline, predictability and client involvement to the compensation process through the adoption of budgets and staffing plans.
Originally published in the abfJournal - OCT 2013.
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