Weil bills $55m on Lehman as US earnings top $84m

Figures released in the US show that between 15 September 2008 and 31 January 2009, legal fees relating to the largest and most complicated Chapter 11 in US history totalled more than $84m.

Weil Gotshal & Manges, Lehman's lead counsel, has taken the lion's share, so far billing the bank $55m (£36.9m) for 100,296.40 hours of work.

Lead restructuring partner Harvey Miller has billed the most hours - 794.80, at a rate of $950 (£638) an hour. However, he is not the firm's highest biller, as exchange rates pushed the fees of Weil's London lawyers to more than $1,000 (£672) per hour. City head Mike Francies (pictured) is the highest biller involved, spending nearly 78 hours on Lehman at a rate of $1,170 (£786) an hour. All told, 128 Weil partners and of counsel have spent 29,398 hours on the case.

According to the filing, 365 Weil associates have spent 58,403 hours on the case - an average of about 160 hours each. Exchange rates also affect these figures, with a few London associates billing the equivalent of $900 (£605) per hour.

Weil also has spent - and billed for - about $1.3m (£874,000) in expenses.

Ten other firms account for the remaining $27m (£18.2m) or so in fees and expenses billed on Lehman - Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy, the counsel for the committee of unsecured creditors, billed more than $12.1m (£8.1m), while Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosley, Lehman's conflicts counsel, billed a little over $4.6m (£3.09m).

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett billed Lehman for nearly $1.4m (£941,000), but more than a third of this went to preparing former Lehman chief executive Richard Fuld for his appearance before the US House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in October. Fuld was grilled over his huge personal compensation and whether he deceived investors about Lehman's health.

Other firms submitting bills include Jenner & Block - which submitted a fee application seeking more than $626,000 (£420,800) for work investigating Lehman's collapse - Jones Day, McKee Nelson and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges.