Hunter
12/05/23
The sale of Mercy Hospital to University of Iowa Health Care is nearing completion, while trustees argue over millions in legal fees.
The Gazette reports the trustees believe the Chicago law firm of McDermott Will and Emery continues to seek payment of fees multiple times greater than any other party in the case.
Trustee Mary Jensen cited one instance where a lawyer billed Mercy for three hours for what they described, to “analyze and address various discovery matters,” at a rate of $1410 per hour.
McDermott also billed the estate for sending multiple attorneys to a court hearing when one or two would have sufficed; 14 of the 23 attorneys billing Mercy from the firm charge hourly fees of over $1000.
Jensen said, “That expertise should translate into matters being handled efficiently and effectively, not requiring frequent intra-office conferencing and the review and revisions of the same pleadings and each other’s work product by multiple professionals for many of the matters in the case.”
In total so far, the law firm has accumulated $6.2 million in fees.