Love the Lawyers: The Twitter-Musk Agreement Will End the Legal Fee Bonanza | Media Pyro

Not everyone is a winner Elon MuskThe decision to go through the Twitter Inc. work.

Imagine the number of lawyers preparing to file a lawsuit if the world’s richest man can walk away from the sale — and stand to make millions of dollars in the process.

More than 70 attorneys appeared in Delaware Chancery court to represent various parties in the case — about 30 for Twitter, most of them from Twitter. Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katzthe most profitable company in the country, and 20 for Musk from companies including Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP a Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.

“With all the lawyers in the case and the potential for other lawsuits to come out of this, such as financial settlements, I see the total legal fees reaching $1 billion,” he said. John Coffee, a Columbia University law professor who studies M&A disputes. Other cases have reached or exceeded the billion-dollar mark in costs, Coffee said in an interview before Musk revived his bid to buy Twitter, so they didn’t. money in history, but still important.

Even without a trial, lawyers have already been paid to file numerous appeals against witnesses who may have been called to testify on either side.

All the Banks, billionaires and VCs sucked into Twitter v. Musk

“They should give Elon Musk some kind of award for the person who has done the most recent work to ensure the economic health of the legal profession,” Coffee said.

Since Musk has been involved in so many businesses, he has created some controversial issues among lawyers over the years.

WATCH: After a long legal battle, Elon Musk now says he wants to buy Twitter for an initial public offering price of $54.20 per share, eliminating the need for a court hearing.

Source: Bloomberg

In the Twitter battle, Musk’s Delaware-based attorneys from Skadden Arps and Twitter’s lead firm, Wachtell, are expected to hire so-called conflict advisors to send messages to groups in they chose in advance, according to court documents. On Musk’s behalf, the war counsel is the law firm Chipman Brown Cicero & Cole LLP. For Twitter the Delaware office of Ballard Spahr LLP and local law firm of Kobre & Kim LLP.

The amount of fact-finding arguments before trial in a case like the Musk-Twitter showdown keeps law firms cash registers, said Chuck Durante, a partner at Wilmington’s. Connolly Gallagher LLP and current chapter of the Delaware State Bar Association.

“It is very difficult to calculate the amount of legal fees that will be spent by each side, but it is safe to say that it is a good number for all law firms involved in this case,” Durante said in the interview.

In litigation, legal fees for both sides have reached the low-to-mid eight figures, as partners can work 14 to 16 hour days on these cases , Peter Ladig, a Delaware attorney who handles Chancery Court cases. said in July.

Wachtell’s partners in the 2019 bankruptcy case were billed $1,100 to $1,500 an hour, while his partners were paid $650 to $900. Those numbers may have risen in recent years, but law firms don’t disclose hourly wages.

William G. Rossa law professor at Samford University in Alabama who specializes in legal fees, said it’s unusual in intense, win-win legal battles for attorneys to be paid as much as $1,700 each hours.

“That’s a lot of money for an hour of a lawyer’s time, but it’s a good time for some lawyers,” he said.

The previous bill for publicly announced services was the former Attorney General of the United States Neal KatyalRepresenting Johnson & Johnson in an appellate argument for a controversial Chapter 11 case of one of its units to settle talc-cancer liability costs nearly $2,500-an-hour.

The case is Twitter v. Musk, 22-0613, Delaware Chancery Court (Wilmington).

To contact reporters for this story:
Chris Dolmetsch in Federal Court in Manhattan at [email protected];
Jeff Feeley in Wilmington, Delaware at [email protected]

To contact the editors for this story:
Katia Porzecanski at [email protected]

Peter Blumberg

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