A recent Reuters story, “MF Global Trustee’s Law Firm Bills $17 Million So Far,” reports that the legal team unwinding MF Global Holdings’ broker-dealer billed more than $17 million in attorney fees in the first four months of the bankruptcy.  The team from the law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed, led by trustee James Giddens, has been paid from the estate of MF Global Inc., according to court documents filed on Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.

Giddens’ team has billed for roughly $20.1 million for the four-month period, but is withholding 15 percent of the total under an agreement with  the Securities Investor Protection Corp (SIPC), an insurance fund for securities customers that taps trustees like Giddens to liquidate failed brokers.  Giddens’ own rate is about $894 an hour, which incorporates a 10 percent reduction from his normal rate under the agreement with SIPC, according to the filing.  Giddens billed 424 total hours in the four months.

Some of the key partners on Giddens’ team have billed more hours.  James Kobak, who charged the same rate as Giddens, put in 749 hours, while bankruptcy partner Christopher Kiplok logged about 675 hours at $691 per hour.  The full team, which includes nearly 130 lawyers and another 28 paralegals, has racked up more than 43,000 hours, according to the fee submission.