Exclusive – Legal & Financial Advisers Feast on Bankruptcy Fees from the Oil Patch

© 2017 The Texas Lawbook.By Mark Curriden of The Texas Lawbook (Jan. 4) – When times were good in the oil patch and crude was selling at a $100 a barrel just three years ago, lawyers and bankers scored record profits advising companies on a record number of mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and securities offerings. For the past two-and-half years, the energy industry has been in crisis. Oil slipped to $30 a barrel. Thousands and thousands of people lost their jobs. A record number of oil and gas companies and the businesses servicing them declared bankruptcy. The law firms and financial counselors working for those distressed energy operations, however, continue to pocket hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to the complex federal bankruptcy system. The energy companies that declared bankruptcy during the past 30 months – a majority of them based in Texas – have paid their legal and financial advisers – nearly all of them based in New York and Chicago – more than $1.4 billion in fees and expenses during the past two and one half years, according to a Texas Lawbook examination of court records. Those same lawyers and consultants have requested another $260 million in payments…