Two weeks after Sears Holdings Corp. stumbled into bankruptcy, the storied retail giant's Chapter 11 case has revealed the cost of some of its many outside lawyers.

Weil, Gotshal & Manges landed the lead role as Sears' bankruptcy counsel once the company slipped into insolvency in the strategic locale of White Plains, New York, on Oct. 15. In the 90 days before its Chapter 11 petition, Sears paid $10.15 million to Weil, according to a declaration filed with the bankruptcy court on Oct. 26 by Ray Schrock, co-chairman of Weil's business finance and restructuring department.

Schrock, who joined Weil in 2014 from Kirkland & Ellis, is working with fellow New York-based bankruptcy partners Jacqueline Marcus, Garrett Fail and Sunny Singh in advising Sears. Schrock helmed a Weil team that handled the 2015 bankruptcy of The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. Inc., a proceeding that eventually led to the demise of the grocer better known as A&P.

Earlier this year, Schrock and Weil picked up lead roles on the bankruptcies of fashion jewelry retailer Claire's Stores Inc. and supermarket chains Tops Markets LLC and Southeastern Grocers LLC. Singh, who made partner at Weil last year and is known for having worked day and night on a team that advised on the bankruptcy of now-defunct Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., is also involved in the Chapter 11 cases for Tops Markets and Southeastern Grocers. Marcus, who made partner at Weil a decade ago, is another seasoned bankruptcy lawyer.

Ray Schrock

Schrock's declaration states that Weil partners and counsel are billing Sears between $1,075 and $1,600 per hour for their services, while associates from the firm are working at hourly rates ranging from $560 to $995. Prime Clerk LLC, a bankruptcy claims administrator started by former Weil bankruptcy partner Shai Waisman, is serving as a claims and noticing agent for Sears' Chapter 11 case.

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, which said in court papers that it has spent more than a decade serving as general corporate counsel to Sears on a variety of matters, is now seeking to serve as special bankruptcy counsel to the company. Wachtell, whose billing practices remain a continuous subject of interest in Big Law, stated in court papers filed Monday that partners and of counsel at the firm are billing Sears between $950 to $1,400 per hour for their services, with associates working at hourly rates ranging from $500 to $925.

In the 90 days before its Chapter 11 petition, Sears paid nearly $1.4 million to Wachtell, according to a bankruptcy court filing by the firm seeking employment on behalf of the suburban Chicago-based company. A declaration filed by Wachtell restructuring and finance of counsel Amy Wolf states that the firm has not done work for former Sears CEO Edward Lampert, who resigned from Sears earlier this month, his hedge fund ESL Investments Inc. or any of its affiliates on any matter since June 2015.

Haynes and Boone counseled Lampert's ESL back in 2013 on the reduction of its stake in Sears, which has not turned a profit since 2010. Former ESL general counsel William Harker, a former corporate associate at Wachtell who is now a co-founder and president of hedge fund Ashe Capital Management LP, also once worked in Sears' office of the chairman and served on the board of directors of Sears Canada. Wachtell advised Sears on its $11 billion merger in 2004 with Kmart Holding Corp. The firm then helped Sears defeat a long-running class action suit stemming from that ill-fated retail industry combination.

Bankruptcy court filings show that James Bromley, a prominent bankruptcy partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in New York, is advising Lampert's ESL in Sears' bankruptcy case, along with fellow restructuring partner Sean O'Neal and litigation counsel Andrew Weaver.

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld financial restructuring partner Ira Dizengoff has been hired to advise an official committee of unsecured creditors in Sears' Chapter 11 case. DLA Piper, which Sears' board has retained as real estate counsel, has not yet filed billing statements with the bankruptcy court.

Sears, whose general counsel is Stephen Sitley, earlier this month added former Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom corporate restructuring lawyer Alan Carr as an independent member of its board. Carr is now a partner and CEO at Drivetrain LLC, a New York-based turnaround management firm. Sears, which in bankruptcy has listed more than $10 billion in liabilities against $1 billion in assets, plans to close hundreds of stores in an effort to stay in business.