More than six months after the Archdiocese of New Orleans settled its long-running bankruptcy with hundreds of abuse survivors, the judge who presided over the nearly six-year case on Wednesday resolved one of the final outstanding issues in the case: the high cost of attorneys fees.
Following a day-long trial Wednesday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill ordered each of the three primary firms involved in the case — Jones Walker, which represented the archdiocese, and Pachulski Stang and Troutman Pepper, which jointly represented the committee of clergy abuse survivors — to reduce their final fee bills in the case by 6% each, or about $2.6 million total.
The ruling came after the archdiocese challenged the legal fees of Pachulski Stang and Troutman Pepper, which together totaled some $17 million. The archdiocese argued that the firms spent “staggering amounts of professional time” on the case, duplicating services, doubling up on calls and engaging in overbilling — charges the firms denied…