<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Chrysler fees may hit $295m
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Ms Corinne Ball, the lawyer leading Chrysler's bankruptcy case, will charge it as much as US$950 an hour, according to court filings. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->New York - Bankrupt United States automaker Chrysler may pay an estimated US$200 million (S$295 million) to lawyers and other professionals helping it to try to create a more viable business in partnership with Italy's Fiat.
The third-largest US automaker has already paid Jones Day lawyers US$18.9 million in retainers since last November to avoid, and then prepare for, the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding, according to court documents.
Lawyers, bankers and accountants may reap more than 10 times that amount in court-approved fees by the time the case ends, said Professor Stephen Lubben, who teaches bankruptcy law at Seton Hall University School of Law in Newark, New Jersey, and keeps a database on fees.
Chrysler, with about 54,000 employees, listed year-end 2008 assets of about US$39.3 billion and liabilities totalling US$55.2 billion, according to court documents. It aims to sell its best assets - which include its Jeep brand and Dodge Ram pickups - to Fiat, using bankruptcy law to wind up its liabilities.
Chrysler's secured lenders included Yale University, Oaktree Capital Management and assets managed for the University of Kentucky, Halliburton, Kraft Foods Master Retirement, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a court filing in the carmaker's bankruptcy shows.
The automaker's lead lawyers at Jones Day, led by restructuring partner Corinne Ball, will charge Chrysler as much as US$950 an hour, according to court filings.
Ms Ball's billing rate as of last month was US$900 an hour, as was her colleague David Heiman's, according to the filing.
Prof Lubben's estimate, based on Chrysler's reported assets and liabilities, assumes it may take two years to wrap up the carmaker's bankruptcy. Bloomberg
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Ms Corinne Ball, the lawyer leading Chrysler's bankruptcy case, will charge it as much as US$950 an hour, according to court filings. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->New York - Bankrupt United States automaker Chrysler may pay an estimated US$200 million (S$295 million) to lawyers and other professionals helping it to try to create a more viable business in partnership with Italy's Fiat.
The third-largest US automaker has already paid Jones Day lawyers US$18.9 million in retainers since last November to avoid, and then prepare for, the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding, according to court documents.
Lawyers, bankers and accountants may reap more than 10 times that amount in court-approved fees by the time the case ends, said Professor Stephen Lubben, who teaches bankruptcy law at Seton Hall University School of Law in Newark, New Jersey, and keeps a database on fees.
Chrysler, with about 54,000 employees, listed year-end 2008 assets of about US$39.3 billion and liabilities totalling US$55.2 billion, according to court documents. It aims to sell its best assets - which include its Jeep brand and Dodge Ram pickups - to Fiat, using bankruptcy law to wind up its liabilities.
Chrysler's secured lenders included Yale University, Oaktree Capital Management and assets managed for the University of Kentucky, Halliburton, Kraft Foods Master Retirement, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a court filing in the carmaker's bankruptcy shows.
The automaker's lead lawyers at Jones Day, led by restructuring partner Corinne Ball, will charge Chrysler as much as US$950 an hour, according to court filings.
Ms Ball's billing rate as of last month was US$900 an hour, as was her colleague David Heiman's, according to the filing.
Prof Lubben's estimate, based on Chrysler's reported assets and liabilities, assumes it may take two years to wrap up the carmaker's bankruptcy. Bloomberg
