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Hillblom claimants squabble over fees
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Posted on Mar 04 1999
Attorneys representing claimants to the multi-million estate left by business tycoon Larry Hillblom are in squabble over what they claimed excessive fees and service payments sought by certain legal counsels, according to court documents.
In a latest of series of allegations raised by legal representatives of Hillblom’s children, Garrick L. Gallagher, counsel for the late businessman’s Vietnamese daughter Nguyen Be Lory, asked the Superior Court to review the reasonableness of the professional fees and expenses of the Executor and lawyers.
According to Bank of Saipan, executor of the Hillblom estate, over $12 million in fees have been paid to heir claimants’ counsels and the Trust, and more than $8 million alone represent payment for the children’s lawyers.
Gallagher cited the case of David Lujan and Barry Israel, lawyers for Junior Larry Hillbroom, whose fees reflect the highest contingent fees at 38 percent on top of the $4 million they have negotiated for themselves.
In contrast, legal counsels for other claimants have lowered their contingency fees after receiving payment amounting to $4 million, according to Gallagher.
Total fees to be collected by Lujan and Israel will exceed those of the 30-man legal team of Morrison and Foerster based on a reasonable estimate of a net distributable estate, he added.
The court has previously expressed concerns about the appropriateness and reasonableness of the fees being charged by lawyers in a bid to ensure that funds from the Estate are spent properly and that money to be paid out to heir claimants will be protected.
Gallagher also questioned Hillbroom’s lawyers for stalling explanation to the court why they negotiated for substantial increase in their contingent fees after they had reached a settlement.
“Is there some reason they are not comfortable explaining this large increase in their fee to a Special Master,” Gallagher raised, as he insinuated that Lujan and Israel were involved in several side deals and additional compensation arrangements which the two failed to disclose to the court.
