Lawyers and consultants who assisted cryptocurrency exchange FTX through bankruptcy proceedings will cash out a total of $103 million in the first quarter.
According to Several Filings with Ftx BetWeen April 28 and May 2, Five Firms Sullivan & Cromwell, Alvarez & Marshal, AlixPartnessrs, Quinn Emmanuel UrquHart & Sul Livan, and Landis Rath & Cobb A Total of $ 36.4 Million Was Billed to FTX. Invoices for March WERE slightly higher than the $34.2 million and $32.5 million in January and February, respectively.
New York-based law firm Sullivan & Cromwell again took top pay, with fees and expenses of $14.1 million in March, up $44.4 million from the first quarter. Partners at the firm took home $2,165 an hour, while paralegals and legal analysts were paid $425 and $595 an hour. Consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal followed suit, invoicing more than $13.8 million in March for tens of thousands of hours of evasion actions, financial analysis and accounting procedures they collectively committed.
The firm has acted as restructuring advisor to FTX since Sam Bankman-Fried's former empire filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, marking its third consecutive bill of more than $10 million. Other law firms Quinn Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and L Andis Rath & Cobb billed FTX $3.19 million and $644,000, respectively, in March, for a total of $7.3 million and $1.9 million, respectively, in the first quarter.
With Landis Rath & Cobb serving as special counsel to FTX, the firm spends most of its time in court for court hearings and proceedings. More than 180 attorneys from Sullivan & Cromwell, Quinn Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, and Landis Rath & Cobb have been ass fired to the FTX case. Forensics consulting firm AlixPartners had its largest bill, $4.51 million in March, and a total of $10.2 million in the quarter, for analyzing FTX's holdings of decentralized financial products and tokens.
Despite six months of serious trouble, FTX has yet to put the nail in the coffin. FTX's legal team, which recovered $7.3 billion in assets, is considering restarting the trading platform as early as April 2024.
