Posted in: Comics, Conventions, Current News, Events | Tagged: bankruptcy, diamond

Diamond Comics Lawyers Claimed $17,000 To Go To New York Toy Fair

Diamond Comics bankruptcy lawyers claimed over $17,000 in expenses and fees to go to New York Toy Fair this year

Published Mon, 12 May 2025 08:57:09 -0500

It's a hard life being a bankruptcy lawyer. But there are compensations. As part of the current Diamond Comic Distributors Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, all lawyers and legal firms have been hired for one part of the proceedings or another. Lowenstein Sandler, co-counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, is billing half a million a month, at around $1000 an hour. The Berkeley Research Group, authorised to provide professional services to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, are billing almost $800,000. While Tydings & Rosenberg, as local counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, charged a much smaller $120,000. And for their second monthly staffing and compensation report of Getzler Henrich & Associates, to "provide professional services to debtors and debtors in possession" was half a million for the month of March.

A black Jeep Wrangler decorated with colorful rubber ducks displayed at a toy fair. The background features a vibrant toy fair banner. — A whimsical black Jeep Wrangler adorned with colourful rubber ducks at the Toy Fair event, capturing attention with its unique display. Photo by Howard Weiss/Shutterstock.

We found a few highlights poring through the many line entries. We already looked at the cost purely in billing terms of the Dennis Barger podcast or the revelations about cease-and-desist letters. But what of the cost of attending the New York Toy Fair held from the 1st to the 4th of March at the Javits Centre? Here are some claimed expenses and billable hours filed for.

Ramy Aly 3/2/2025 $18.31 GW Bridge for NY Toy Fair
Waleed Aly 3/1/2025 $31.90 Uber to Hotel
Waleed Aly 3/1/2025 $49 Round Trip Ferry to NY Toy Fair
Waleed Aly 3/1/2025 $34 Uber to Javitz
Waleed Aly 3/1/2025 $8.70 Subway to NY Toy Fair
Waleed Aly 3/2/2025 $29.81 Uber to Javitz
Waleed Aly 3/2/2025 $34.55 Uber to Ferry
Waleed Aly 3/2/2025 $32.25 Uber to Hotel

It's good to know that lawyers think the Javitz Center should be spelt with a Z as well. Then there was food when you were there.

Ramy Aly 3/2/2025 $28.75 Breakfast at NY Toy Fair
Ramy Aly 3/2/2025 $42.95 Working Lunch – NY Toy Fair

And then what you actually came to the show to do, how many hours you spent doing it and what you charged…

Waleed Aly 3/1/2025 10.6 $5,565 Attended Toy Fair to support management and meet with vendors to discuss BK process and post-petition operations
Ramy Aly 3/2/2025 11.6 $7,482 NY Toy Fair – vendor, employee, and prospective buyer management. Met with several reporters from the press to field questions
Waleed Aly 3/2/2025 6.4 $3,360 Attended Toy Fair to support management and meet with vendors to discuss BK process and post-petition operations
Waleed Aly 3/3/2025 0.9 $472.50 Call with counsel to discuss ongoing supplier issues, contract cures, and Toy Fair
assets

That's a total of $17,189.72 for two lawyers to go to the New York Toy Fair. Thankfully, they didn't try to claim for picking up some jellycats.

But the costs involved are steep. There are hundreds of dollars billed each time for reading e-mails or looking at an office calendar. Non-working travel, such as time spent by Lowenstein Sandler travelling to the auction and to hearings on behalf of the Committee, is only billed at half price, at around $10,000. Just researching who Diamond's former owner, Steve Geppi, is was billed at $5000, and William Henrich billed a further $684 to discuss a Steve Geppi/JP Morgan Chase investigation. The details of which we may never know.

Gianfranco Finiziobiller billed for an Uber ride from the Diamond Comics bankruptcy auction at Raymond James in New York City to his home in Long Island, totalling $225, because it finished so late. This is a detail we didn't know but do now. Michael T. Papandrea billed $110 for parking to attend the auction at Raymond James. The aforementioned Ramy Aly instead chose a $494.79 hotel for the auction and a $668 Amtrak round-trip.

Robert Gorin booked repeat flights back and forth from Florida to Baltimore for a grand each way, but only $209 on a train from New York to Baltimore. Waleed Aly got a train to work for $278 but saved a lot on the auction with a $49 round-trip ferry Ticket. He did get a $6 breakfast at company headquarters and $4 for late-night work and prep water/snacks. But may have potentially sent out for pizzas, as he claimed $122.89 for food during the auction. Well, it did run late. And then Robert Gorin splashed out $ 176.80 for breakfast with B. Henrich, J. Hampton, A. Isenberg, M. Minuti, P. Topper, and himself and is now claiming it back.

Robert Gorin charged $981.50 for a call with Steve Geppi about the interest or involvement of a potential bidder for Diamond Select Toys and other company assets. And another $ 981.50 for an update on the company sale process and employee issues. And other billed events just suggest a hinterland of complexities in this case.

Then there was $172 charged to review correspondence from an interested party regarding UK assets. $258 to review and analyse Diamond UK disposition scenarios. $2310 for a study of the Disney License Agreement and case decisions regarding the assignability of intellectual property agreements in bankruptcy. And more to conduct a search of the Copyright Office registration database regarding multiple potential copyright holders and address copyright questions. What copyright questions? What multiple holders?

Then at the end of March, $528.50 to discuss the top bidder's planned meeting with comic book retailers to discuss future plans, including a call with Diamond management regarding interactions with retailers. Basically… not going on any podcasts.

It gets to seven-figure sums very quickly, does it not? Imagine if, instead, they had just sent $20,000 to a hundred publishers or vendors owed that amount by Diamond instead of on lawyers…