Legal work related to the reorganization of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. has stuffed more than $108 million into law firms’ pockets.
That’s from a post by Zach Lowe on the Am Law Daily blog, a Daily Report affiliate. Lowe’s posting expanded on a Bloomberg News story about the fees paid to bankers, accountants and lawyers in the case—some $262.6 million for work done between Sept. 15, 2008, the date of Lehman’s bankruptcy filing, and June 30 of this year, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Eleven law firms—including one based in Atlanta (McKenna, Long & Aldridge); one with an Atlanta office (Jones Day) and another co-founded by a former Atlantan (McKee Nelson)—handled court-appointed work for Lehman or its creditors. 
Here’s how the firms rank so far in total Lehman billings:
• Weil, Gotshal & Manges: $63,746,000
• Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy (lead counsel to creditors committee): $17,246,000
• Jenner & Block (court-appointed examiner): $6,703,000
• Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle (special counsel to Lehman on conflicts issues): $6,399,000
• McKee Nelson (special counsel to Lehman on tax issues): $3,993,000
• Jones Day (special counsel to Lehman on Asia-related issues): $2,919,000
• Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges (special counsel to Lehman on conflicts): $2,289,000
• McKenna Long & Aldridge (special counsel to Lehman on real estate): $1,473,000
• Bortstein Legal (special counsel on IT issues): $1,338,000
• Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett (special counsel on federal reporting and testimony): $1,248,000
• Reilly Pozner (special counsel on mortgage litigation and claims): $733,000
A peek at the interim compensation applications filed in the Lehman matter in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York shows 20 Atlanta lawyers billed hours on the case. All were from McKenna, with John G. Aldridge, senior counsel at the firm, posting the highest hourly rate at $625.
No Jones Day Atlanta lawyers are listed as billing on this matter; most were from the firm’s Hong Kong, Tokyo, Taipei or San Francisco offices.
The highest-billing lawyer with a local connection was William F. Nelson, a former King & Spalding-Atlanta tax partner who left the firm in 1999 to found Washington-based tax and finance boutique McKee Nelson. His hourly tab: $995.