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Brokerage firm Voyager Digital is ordered to pay $1.1 million to its legal counsel, Kirkland & Ellis, in fees and expenses related to their participation in the former brokerage firm’s bankruptcy proceedings in April.
According to available documents, the law firm Kirkland & Ellis has implemented a mixed hourly rate of $1,313.18 for various services throughout the month. The combined fees assessed for legal services provided by both attorneys and paralegals amounted to more than $1.4 million.
Notably, in this context, some members in high positions within the firm charged hourly rates in excess of $2,000 for their professional services.
Kirkland & Ellis is known for representing several cryptocurrency companies in bankruptcy, and its esteemed clients include organizations such as BlockFi and Celcius.
The Voyager bankruptcy plan was approved by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on May 17, 2023. The third bankruptcy plan was proposed on May 5 after Binance. US abandoned plans to buy $1 billion of Voyager’s assets on April 25.
In July 2022, Voyager initiated the process of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection due to the significant impact of the cryptocurrency credit crunch, which has had severe repercussions for numerous lenders and brokers in the industry. Under the previous leadership of Steve Ehrlich, Voyager was previously a public company in Canada.
At the time of filing for bankruptcy, Voyager disclosed liabilities ranging from $1 billion to $10 billion, indicating the size of its financial liabilities and the circumstances that led to the decision to file for bankruptcy protection.
Related: The Voyager app will reopen for customer withdrawals as early as June 20th.
Voyager is not alone in having to pay hefty fees in the bankruptcy process. FTX, another company involved in a similar bankruptcy process, amassed a large sum in excess of $120 million for financial and legal advice between February 1 and April 30.
Cointelegraph reached out to the law firm Voyager and Kirkland & Ellis for more information, but has not received any feedback at the time of this posting.