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The legal and consulting firms involved in cryptocurrency exchange FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings are set to receive a whopping $103 million in fees and expenses over the first quarter of this year.
This comes as court filings between April 28 and May 2 revealed that five firms, including Sullivan & Cromwell, Alvarez & Marshal, AlixPartners, Quinn Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Landis Rath & Cobb, billed FTX a total of $36.4 million in March alone. The figures for January and February were also high, at $34.2 million and $32.5 million respectively.
Sullivan & Cromwell topped the list with the largest paycheck of $14.1 million in fees and expenses for March alone, adding to a total of $44.4 million for the first quarter. Partners at the firm received $2,165 per hour, while paralegals and legal analysts received $425 and $595 per hour, respectively.
Alvarez & Marsal came in next, billing over $13.8 million in March for its financial analysis and accounting procedures. It was the firm’s third successive billing of over $10 million since it was appointed as FTX’s restructuring advisor when the exchange filed for bankruptcy in November 2020. Quinn Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Landis Rath & Cobb billed FTX $3.19 million and $644,000 in March, respectively, for respective totals of $7.3 million and $1.9 million over the first quarter.
The FTX case has involved a team of over 180 lawyers from Sullivan & Cromwell, Quinn Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, and Landis Rath & Cobb. In March, AlixPartners analyzed decentralized finance products and tokens in FTX's possession, resulting in their largest invoice of $4.51 million. The firm's total billing for the quarter amounted to $10.2 million.
Despite its six months of severe financial troubles, FTX has not given up yet. The exchange has recovered $7.3 billion in assets, and its legal team is looking to potentially reboot the trading platform as early as April 2024.