The US is objecting to a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary’s proposal to hire Hogan Lovells partner Neal Katyal to its legal team in a high-stakes bankruptcy dispute, citing his hourly pay of $2,465 — perhaps a new legal industry high.
Attorney Neal Katyal’s hourly billing rate would rank among the highest in the legal industry, a professor says. The trustee in the Johnson & Johnson talc case asked a bankruptcy judge to block LTL from hiring Katyal. LTL is trying to resolve claims that its baby powder and other talc-based products caused cancer. It assigned thousands of talc lawsuits to a new subsidiary, LTL Management LLC, and placed it in bankruptcy. Attorney Neal Katyal, a former acting U.S. solicitor general, is representing LTL in its bankruptcy case.
Lawyers from Jones Day, Hogan Lovells, and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe are representing the company. The trustee previously sought to disqualify both Jones Day and Skadden from LTL’s team because they represent Johnson & Johnson. Top approved billing rates in bankruptcy cases have been creeping toward $2,000 over the past year.
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