Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Weil, Gotshal & Manges lawyers may be paid as much as $950 an hour by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. to handle its bankruptcy, the largest in U.S. history.

Lehman, with debt of about $613 billion, filed an application yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York to retain the law firm's bankruptcy group, led by partner Harvey Miller. The investment bank asked for court approval to pay $650 to $950 an hour for partners and counsel, $355 to $595 for associates and $155 to $295 for paraprofessionals.

Weil has represented Lehman in financial matters for 24 years, according to the filing. In the year before Lehman's Sept. 15 bankruptcy filing, Weil received $51.8 million from the investment bank and its affiliates for legal work unrelated to its financial crisis last month, the firm said in the filing.

``Weil, Gotshal & Manges' past experience with Lehman is particularly valuable because of the extraordinary complexity of the debtors' business operations,'' the bank said in the filing.

Miller, 75, has represented debtors including Texaco Inc., Global Crossing Inc. and Sunbeam Corp., according to the firm's Web site. Weil, a 1,200-lawyer firm, has more than 100 lawyers in its bankruptcy practice. Weil advised the debtors in what were previously the two largest bankruptcies, Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc.

$906 Million in Fees

Professional fees for lawyers, accountants and financial advisers in the Lehman case may reach $906 million, according to Lynn LoPucki, one of the top bankruptcy experts in the U.S., who has developed a professional fees calculator. He teaches bankruptcy law at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Enron, in December 2004, three years into its bankruptcy case, asked a judge to approve more than $870 million in fees for advisers. Weil alone requested almost $164 million and was paid $149.4 million, according to filings with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.

Lehman has more than 100,000 creditors listed in its bankruptcy filing. Among the investment bank's obligations are at least $155 billion in unsecured bond debt, court papers show. Lehman's bond and stockholders, along with employees, are likely to be among the hardest hit from the investment firm's collapse, lawyers say.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Peck in Manhattan is scheduled to consider the fee request is on Oct. 16.

The case is In re Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., 08-13555, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporters on this story: Lindsay Fortado in New York at lfortado@bloomberg.net; Linda Sandler in New York at lsandler@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 9, 2008 10:38 EDT