Wondering What 300+ Lawyers Do On Madoff?

The request filed by Madoff Trustee Irving Picard and his counsel, the Baker & Hostetler law firm, for $47.9 million in legal fees is based on 130,596 billed hours by more than 300 lawyers at the firm, over a four month period. Studying the fee application helps one discern the key matters on which Picard and his counsel are spending their time (or at least how they spent their time during the four month period covered by the application). 

For example, there is a lot of document review (almost 11,000 hours) and pre-trial discovery (7,900 hours). The trustee’s lawyers continue to deal with “feeder fund” issues (one in particular took more than 5,100 hours during the period), customer claims (over 2,500 hours), and Madoff family matters (over 2,300 hours). So-called “avoidance litigation” took nearly 24,000 hours (totaling over $9.3 million in fees). Other than that, the largest category: Wilpon/Katz, the owners of the New York Mets baseball team who appear locked into litigation with Picard - 12,065.80 hours, generating $5,500,321.50 in requested fees.
 
Here are all of the categories, with their respective hours and amount requested:
 
Task/Matter Task/Matter Name                                  HOURS          AMOUNT
01 Trustee Investigation                                             772.30             $395,431.00
02 Bankruptcy Court Litigation/Related                       1,750.40          819,196.50
03 Feeder Funds                                                       2,977.30          1,333,845.50
04 Asset Search Recovery and Sale                           249.10             178,219.50
05 Internal Office Meetings with Staff                           761.70             286,987.00
07 Billing                                                                  576.40             192,813.50
08 Case Administration                                             1,636.20          562,697.00
09 Banks                                                                 842.80             378,561.00
10 Court Appearances                                               9.80                 8,285.00
11 Press Inquires and Responses                               528.50             239,256.00
12 Document Review                                                  10,752.10        3,203,613.50
13 Discovery Dep and Doc Productions                        7,939.00          3,084,677.50
14 International                                                           2,301.50          1,079,170.50
15 Charities                                                               1.70                 1,157.50
17 Access - Luxembourg                                            5,267.50          1,279,031.00
19 Non-Bankruptcy Litigation                                       51.90               25,491.50
20 Governmental Agencies                                          27.50               23,106.00
21 Allocation                                                              233.10             138,723.50
000003 Stanley Chais                                                 547.30             234,865.00
000004 J. Ezra Merkin                                                5,105.50          1,954,165.00
000005 Customer Claims (2009 - 2011)                        2,515.50          1,155,498.50
000006 Vizcaya                                                         393.70             171,097.50
000007 Madoff Family                                                 2,395.20          1,065,017.50
000008 Norman Levy                                                  204.70             72,570.00
000009 Fairfield Greenwich                                         4,256.80          1,398,894.50
000010 Harley                                                           98.90               48,164.00
000011 Cohmad Securities Corporation                       3,863.90          1,582,242.50
000012 Picower                                                         483.80             249,003.00
000013 Kingate                                                         3,414.90          1,604,632.50
000018 Thybo                                                           1,026.40          546,618.00
000019 Ruth Madoff                                                   12.60               5,087.50
000020 Carl Shapiro                                                   79.10               32,224.00
000021 Avoidance Action Invest/Lit 2010-12                  23,821.10        9,374,491.00
000024 Robert Luria                                                    36.30               19,362.50
000025 Amy Luria                                                       63.20               34,876.00
000026 Richard Stahl                                                  839.80             385,593.00
000027 JPMorgan Chase                                             6,247.00          2,843,434.50
000028 Westport                                                        1,056.90          334,804.50
000029 Rye/Tremont                                                   675.30             357,669.00
000030 HSBC                                                             4,249.00          2,118,934.50
000031 Katz/Wilpon                                                    12,065.80        5,500,321.50
000032 LuxAlpha/UBS                                                 3,297.70          1,282,777.00
000033 Nomura Bank International PLC                         199.90             85,169.50
000034 Citibank                                                           702.80             304,313.00
000035 Natixis                                                             858.10             368,669.50
000036 Merrill Lynch                                                    103.00             51,306.50
000037 ABN AMRO                                                     56.00               23,783.50
000038 Banco Bilbao                                                   772.50             337,088.50
000039 Fortis                                                              15.60               6,354.00
000040 Medici Enterprise                                             5,557.80          2,477,779.00
000041 Whitechapel                                                    121.50             58,344.50
000042 Equity Trading                                                 765.70             270,115.50
000043 Defender                                                         164.30             85,474.50
000044 Maccabee                                                       34.50               19,029.50
000045 Levey                                                              69.00               37,943.50
000046 Glantz                                                            693.70             356,809.00
000047 Bonaventre                                                      24.90               8,055.00
000048 Bongiorno                                                       45.60               20,349.50
000049 Greenberger                                                    247.30             154,470.50
000050 Pitz                                                                135.00             42,534.00
000051 Crupi                                                               46.80               15,086.50
000052 Donald Friedman                                              773.50             337,287.50
000053 Magnify                                                           457.80             196,974.50
000054 Mendelow                                                       171.80             94,464.00
000055 Kugel                                                              228.50             99,654.50
000056 Lipkin                                                              79.70               27,920.50
000057 Perez/O'Hara                                                   25.70               12,890.50
000058 PJ Administrators                                            1,174.40          554,450.50
000059 Stanley Shapiro                                               94.40               49,812.50
000060 Avellino & Bienes                                             1,415.10          644,365.00
000061 Maxam                                                           1,714.00          786,644.00
000062 Subsequent Transfer                                        418.40             167,334.50
 
Grand Total                                                                130,596.50      53,297,079.50