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Receiver Fees in Dreier Case Estimated at $1.4 Million
New York Law Journal
April 03, 2009
Now that the court-appointed receiver in the government's case against indicted attorney Marc S. Dreier has wrapped up nearly four months of work, he and his attorneys at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison anticipate asking for about $1.4 million in fees.
In an interview Thursday, Mark F. Pomerantz, who was appointed receiver in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Dreier, 08, Civ. 10617, said he expects to seek $150,000, while his counsel will ask for approximately $1.25 million for the Paul Weiss team, representing a substantial discount from the firm's regular rates. Pomerantz said an additional fee request will be made to cover expenses for third parties, such as professionals who stored Dreier's extensive modern art collection.
In a report released last week, Pomerantz told Southern District of New York Judge Miriam Goldman Cederbaum that with the receiver's "most pressing" tasks completed, it would be "unseemly" for the Paul Weiss team to continue to bill at "expensive hourly rates in circumstances involving so much pain."
According to the report, more than $100 million in assets have been secured since Pomerantz's appointment on Dec. 8, 2008.
At a hearing Thursday afternoon, Cederbaum granted the motion to dissolve the receivership, but was skeptical about a proposed stipulation to keep the exhibits accompanying Pomerantz's 49-page report from becoming public. Questioning the need for "extreme secrecy," she said normally the court "releases everything publicly." Despite the judge's reluctance to add to the "overflowing safe downstairs," she said she would take the "opaque" stipulation under consideration.
A joint hearing with Judge Cederbaum, Southern District of New York Judge Jed S. Rakoff, who is presiding over Dreier's criminal case, and Southern District of New York Chief Bankruptcy Judge Stuart M. Bernstein is scheduled for April 22.
