Madoff Case Is Paying Off for Trustee ($850 an Hour) - NYTimes.com:
Irving H. Picard, the court-appointed trustee seeking to recover funds for the victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, has been described as a modern-day Robin Hood. For nearly four years, he has been working to pay back those who were swindled by Mr. Madoff, some who lost their entire life savings.
Yet a look at recent court filings shows Mr. Picard has had much more success collecting money for himself and a dozen law firms and consultants than any victim of Mr. Madoff’s crime.
So far, Mr. Picard’s efforts have created a whopping $554 million in legal and other fees. How much have Mr. Madoff’s victims actually received from all of the cases and motions he’s made? Only $330 million. And how much does Mr. Picard estimate the fee spigot will pour out by 2014? A mere $1 billion.
At $850 an hour, Mr. Picard and his law firm, Baker & Hostetler, are starting to look more like the princes of the Full Employment Act for Lawyers than storybook heroes.
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