The trustee and his team of lawyers liquidating Bernard L. Madoff’s investment firm have asked a bankruptcy judge for $22 million in interim counsel fees. In papers filed Monday in Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court, Baker & Hostetler and Irving H. Picard, respectively, requested some $21.3 million and $836,000 in fees for May 1 through Sept. 30, a 10 percent discount off of their customary billable rates. Picard was appointed trustee of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities in the wake of Madoff’s arrest last December.
The recent fee application comes 3 1/2 months after Bankruptcy Judge Burton R. Lifland approved about $15 million in interim counsel fees for Picard and his attorneys. Lifland’s ruling dispensed with objections by a number of Madoff investors who claimed Picard’s failure to look at a customer’s most recent statement when valuing claims violated the Securities Investor Protection Act. A hearing on Picard’s approach is scheduled for Feb. 2.
