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	Diocese Spent $10 Million on Fees Bellingham Herald July 24, 2007 http://www.bellinghamherald.com/northwest/story/137878.html Spokane, Wash. — The bankruptcy filing by the Catholic Diocese of Spokane has cost it more than $10 million in attorney and professional fees so far. The $10.1 million in fees for attorneys, accountants, real estate brokers and other professionals will come from the $48 million settlement deal for all claims arising from the priest sex abuse scandal that sent the diocese into bankruptcy. The most money will be paid to the Paine Hamblen Coffin Brooke & Miller law firm of Spokane. The firm has submitted a $3.7 million bill for the work of its lawyers, led by Shaun Cross, Greg Arpin and Michael Paukert. The bankruptcy court must approve fees before they're paid. "I'm very proud of the work that my firm did on this entire case," Cross said. Cross acknowledged the sometimes harsh and what he described as uninformed criticism from some attorneys, as well as many parishioners, the press, victims and others, over the diocese's decision to file for bankruptcy protection. He said legal fees could have been kept lower if the U.S. trustee had appointed one committee to represent victims rather than two. One law firm represented a committee of victims who had filed lawsuits over pedophile priests. The other represented victims who had not filed lawsuits. They charged a combined $4.5 million. The two firms were Riddell Williams P.S. of Seattle, which seeks $1.85 million for representing one group of victims; and Pachulski Stang, a Los Angeles-based law group that charged $2.6 million. It was attorney Jim Stang who first won a ruling from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams that parish property was owned by Bishop William Skylstad and thus should be included as assets available to satisfy the legal demands of victims. But U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush reversed the decision on appeal last summer in favor of the diocese and parishes, and urged the sides to mediate. Six months later, the $48 million deal to settle all claims was reached. In bankruptcy, the company, or in this case the diocese, must cover the legal fees of creditors as well as the cost of its own lawyers. Hourly rates for the attorneys ranged from $200 for Arpin and Paukert to $250 for Cross to more than $300 for some victims' attorneys. Cross said that of the $48 million owed to settle the bankruptcy, about $28 million has been collected from insurance settlements and the sale of diocese property, including Skylstad's house in Spokane, farm acreage, and the Chancery building. The approximately $20 million balance will be funded by sales of more property, a $10 million note owed by Eastern Washington parishes now engaged in fundraising and $6 million in notes owed by Skylstad. Victims of sex abuse will collect an average of about $230,000 each. That's far less than the $1.3 million average victims stand to collect in the recently announced $660 million settlement of sex abuse claims against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
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