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Lehman's UK legal advice costs £60m in first year

Some people might think it is justifiable to charge £300 - £800 (?) p/h for occasional sitting around time, cabs home to West London penthouses and dinners after 7pm for work involving a solvent business. It is arguably more difficult to justify however, when the work concerns the world's most disastrous insolvent bank, which has creditors globally still waiting to gather some remnants of even just the European entities. I do not doubt that this whole insolvency raised novel and complex issues and a firm other than Linklaters would unlikely have had the manpower or the expertise(which Linklaters - particularly its top partners - genuinely does possess) - maybe in that way the situation and the fees were unavoidable. However, this is then an example of top firms charging extortionately because they can "afford" to do so. Whether the service is actually worth (particularly where it involves the fate of creditors and even retail investors) is another question…

20-Oct-2009

1:47 pm