Law firms representing debtors and their unsecured creditors’ committees (UCCs) in large Chapter 11 cases charge an average blended rate of USD 1,299 per hour, according to Debtwire’s examination of advisor fees in recent large Chapter 11 cases.

This report relies on data from Debtwire’s Restructuring Database (RDB) to analyze the market rates charged by law firms, financial advisors, and investment bankers advising debtors and UCCs across 38 Chapter 11 cases filed from 1 January 2024. Of these, 36 involved funded debt exceeding USD 500m. The two exceptions – 99 Cents Only Stores and Mondee Holdings – had prepetition funded debt of USD 457m and USD 232m, respectively. Key findings are summarized below, while an accompanying Excel file contains comprehensive underlying fee data for each case covered in this report. All data included is current as of 11 March 2025.

Debtors’ lead counsel

Monthly fee statements or final fee applications were available for debtors’ lead counsel in 30 of the 38 analyzed cases. These documents show an average blended hourly rate of USD 1,285.

The highest blended hourly rate was sought by Davis Polk & Wardwell in Fisker, where the firm requested USD 7.3m in fees for 4,445 hours of work, resulting in a blended hourly rate of USD 1,637. In that case, eight Davis Polk partners billed as high as USD 2,375 per hour.

The second-highest blended hourly rate of USD 1,472 per hour was sought by McDermott Will & Emery as debtors’ lead counsel in Wellpath Holdings. One McDermott partner billed USD 2,520 per hour, while the other 20 partners assigned to the case billed below USD 2,200 per hour. The following table summarizes additional information concerning debtors’ counsel fees.

Overall, attorneys at Paul Weiss recorded the highest individual hourly rate, with five partners seeking USD 2,595 per hour for their work advising Enviva Inc.

Lead counsel to UCCs

Monthly fee statements or final fee applications for UCCs’ lead counsel were available in 22 cases. The average blended hourly rate sought by these law firms was USD 1,319.

The highest blended hourly rate was charged by Willkie Farr & Gallagher for its work on behalf of the UCC in WOM SA. The firm requested total fees of USD 6.8m for 3,938 hours of work, resulting in a blended hourly rate of USD 1,726. Three of the six Willkie Farr partners assigned to the case billed USD 2,500 per hour for their services.

Proskauer Rose had the second-highest blended hourly rate for UCC counsel, charging USD 1,712 per hour in Wellpath Holdings.

The highest individual hourly rate billed by UCC counsel was USD 2,505 per hour, charged by Proskauer Rose attorneys in both Wellpath Holdings and Zachry Holdings.

Financial advisors

Among financial advisors to debtors, AlixPartners recorded the highest blended hourly rate of USD 1,079 per hour in Vyaire Medical. The firm also recorded the highest blended hourly rate among financial advisors to UCCs, at USD 1,013 per hour in Franchise Group, Inc.

Overall, professionals at Alvarez & Marsal billed the highest individual hourly rates: USD 1,550 per hour for services provided to the UCC in Northvolt AB, followed by USD 1,525 per hour as the debtors’ financial advisor in Dynata. FTI Consulting also billed USD 1,525 per hour for services provided to the UCC in Big Lots, Inc.

Investment bankers

Investment bankers are typically compensated differently from legal counsel and financial advisors. For example, in Enviva Inc, Ducera Partners charged the debtors a monthly advisory fee of USD 157,000 starting 2 April 2024 and continuing through the completion of the restructuring. Upon completion, Ducera Partners also required a success-based restructuring fee of USD 3.8m, subject to a discount of USD 78,750 per month against the restructuring fee for each month following the debtors’ payment of its third monthly fee.

A full breakdown of the types and amounts of fees requested by investment bankers in the cases covered by this report is provided in the table below.