The Bankruptcy Files

Wisconsin firm Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek is serving as general bankruptcy counsel to the archdiocese in its Chapter 11 case. Daryl Diesing, a former chair of the firm's real estate and commercial law team, is advising the archdiocese, along with managing director Bruce Arnold.
Both lawyers are billing $475 per hour for their services and associates from their firm are billing between $165 and $275 per hour. Court filings by Whyte Hirschboeck show that the firm was paid $228,191 by the archdiocese in the year prior to its bankruptcy filing. The firm has also received an advance of $432,352 for the bankruptcy case.
Leverson & Metz, a Milwaukee bankruptcy boutique that opened in 2007, is serving as conflicts counsel to the archdiocese. Name partners Leonard Leverson and Mark Metz have requested a $25,000 advance to cover their expected fees in the bankruptcy case.
Robert Buikema, president of Waukesha, Wis., firm Buelow Vetter Buikema Olson & Vliet, and employee benefits head Matthew Flanary are serving as special union and collective bargaining counsel to the archdiocese. The firm has received a prepetition fee advance of $25,000 and estimates that its total fees will not exceed $50,000.
Partners John Gehringer and Seth Dizard from Milwaukee firm O'Neil Cannon Hollman DeJong & Laing are serving as special real estate counsel to the debtor. The firm states in court filings that it's received a $25,000 advance from its client and estimated its total fees at no more than $100,000.
Court records show that Quarles & Brady real estate cochair David Muth and litigation partner John Rothstein have also been advising the archdiocese. Milwaukee solo practitioner Joseph Fenzel is representing Park Bank, a secured creditor for the archdiocese.
The unsecured creditors of the archdiocese predominantly consist of personal injury plaintiffs represented by Jeff Anderson of Minneapolis firm Jeff Anderson & Associates. Anderson questioned the motives behind the archdiocese's bankruptcy filing in an interview with The Associated Press. (Anderson's firm has carved out a national reputation for representing victims of sexual abuse, providing documents to The New York Times last year showing that the Vatican declined to defrock a priest in Milwaukee who abused nearly 200 deaf boys.)
Late last year, the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington filed for bankruptcy in Delaware the day before a civil trial over sex abuse allegations was supposed to start. The Chapter 11 filing postponed those proceedings indefinitely, putting more than 100 civil suits, many of which were filed by Anderson, on the back burner.
Lawyers for the Wilmington diocese--represented by Delaware firm Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor--said in bankruptcy court on Tuesday that their client would file an amended reorganization plan next week, which would give sex abuse victim creditors the choice of continuing with litigation or pursuing a settlement. Young Conaway partner Anthony Flynn, Sr., told Bloomberg that the average maximum payment to victims will now exceed $349,000 under the new reorganization plan.