A recent NLJ story, “Judge Approves $17 Million in Fees for Dewey Advisers,” reports that a U.S. bankruptcy court judge in New York approved $17 million in fees and expenses for advisers working on Dewey & LeBoeuf’s Chapter 11 case, but not before a few minutes were spent celebrating how swiftly the Dewey proceedings have moved along compared to the bankruptcies of other failed firms.  U.S. bankruptcy court judge Martin Glenn called the proceedings “very well done.”

Dewey filed for bankruptcy on May 28, 2011, and won approval of its Chapter 11 liquidation plan nine months later—a fact that lead Dewey bankruptcy lawyer Al Togut was quick to note.  In addressing the court, Togut also highlighted the record amount of secured debt at issue in the case, approximately $230 million, versus the sums at stake in other law firm bankruptcies, and the quickness with which the firm filed for bankruptcy protection after disbanding as among the other challenges that made the pending fee applications worthy of approval.

All told, Glenn signed off on nine pending fee applications, including for law firms Togut, Segal & Segal ($8.8 million); Brown Rudnick, which advised the bankruptcy’s unsecured creditors committee ($3.4 million); special benefits counsel Keightley & Ashner ($164,000); and Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman, which worked for an official committee of former Dewey partners ($1.35 million).  Fee applications for German wind down counsel Thierhoff Muller & Partner ($592,000) and Goldin Associates, which provided financial analysis ($1.3 million) were also among those approved.

Lawyers with the U.S. Department of Justice’s trustee program—which monitors the bankruptcy process and recently proposed fee guidelines aimed at ensuring that attorneys’ fees in Chapter 11 cases are comparable to what firms charge in other practice areas—had previously trimmed less than $13,000 apiece off the fee applications submitted by Brown Rudick, Keightley, and Togut, in part for time spent by the firms preparing and reviewing bills.