Turmoil in the cryptocurrency industry has rattled major exchanges and sent the value of digital assets tumbling, but at least one group stands to gain: bankruptcy lawyers.
“You’ve got to pay the gravedigger,” said Adam Levitin, a law professor at Georgetown University who specializes in bankruptcy law. “These are complicated cases with a bunch of novel issues, and it shouldn’t be surprising that they are going to require a lot of attorney involvement.” Kirkland commands some of the highest billing rates in the industry, charging up to $1,995 per hour for work by its partners on the Celsius and Voyager cases, according to court filings. The firm, which did not respond to a request for comment, has billed an average of about $3.3-million every month in each of those cases so far.
“Kirkland is dominant in large public company bankruptcies already, and this is just extending to a new area of bankruptcy,” said Lynn LoPucki, a law professor at the University of Florida who has studied bankruptcies and corporate restructuring. “If they dominate crypto, it will keep them at the top.”
Wall Street firm Sullivan & Cromwell is bankruptcy counsel for FTX. The firm has not yet revealed its fees, but in a 2021 case involving Kumtor Gold Company, the firm’s partners billed up to $1,825 per hour. The cryptocurrency cases are particularly significant for law firm bankruptcy practices as Chapter 11 filings set off by the COVID-19 pandemic and the struggles of big-box retailers have begun to slow, legal experts said. Crises within certain industries, such as cryptocurrency, can keep business flowing and provide years of steady revenue.
So are casinos and the stock market but you only complain about crypto as it is a way of decentralizing power. And your cult needs people to fear freedom enough to enslave themselves to a central bank digital currency. LiberalChineseCommunistPartyOfCanada
RichardHeartWasRight
Just make this a criminal enterprise!
Make believe money.