Brown Rudnick Lawyer’s $1,500 Rate in PFAS Bankruptcy Rejected

A Brown Rudnick LLP attorney’s request to increase his hourly fees by 50% for representing unsecured creditors of fire protection manufacturer Kidde-Fenwal Inc. was denied by a Delaware bankruptcy judge.

Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein rejected the proposed fee hike to $1,500 from $1,000 per hour for Brown Rudnick partner Gerard T. Cicero at a Wednesday hearing, calling the request “beyond.” Such an increase wouldn’t have been acceptable to her clients when she was in private practice, Silverstein said.

“I had no client who would’ve ever permitted me under any circumstance to have raised my hourly rate by 50%,” Silverstein said. ...