Louisiana Voice

The latest round of invoices for services has to give one pause to wonder if perhaps the Archdiocese of New Orleans might be more interested in keeping the meter running and continuing to pay a cluster of attorneys and experts in perpetuity rather than just fessing up that it is a den of perversion and simply pay the 550 or so victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests.

Court filings on March 27 revealed 12 separate vendors consisting of experts or law firms have filed applications for compensation totaling more than two million dollars for the latest billing cycle running from Nov. 1, 2024 through Feb. 28, 2025.

To date, those same 12 experts, insurance financial planners and attorneys have been paid a combined total of slightly more than $20 million in fees and expenses. That’s about $1.67 million each – and the case appears no nearer resolved than ever.

Here is the breakdown on fees, expenses and total paid to-date on the 12 vendors:

• Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones – co-counsel for the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (claimants): $378,634.50 in fees (for 493.8 hours, average of $766.78 per hour), $31,849.93 in expenses. More than $5.5 million paid so far in fees and expenses.
• Stout Risius Ross (aka The Claro Group) – expert consultant on sexual abuse and expert witness to the committee: $52,951 in fees for 142.6 hours ($371.33 per hour), paid $600,979 so far.
• Rock Creek Advisors – pension financial advisors for the committee: $3,575 for 6.5 hours ($550 per hour).
• Blank Rome – special insurance counsel to the debtor (church): $50,494.92 in fees, paid total of $942,196.52 in fees and $8,947.63 in expenses to date.
• Keegan Linscott & Associates – financial advisor to the debtor: $25,706 in fees and $456.37 in expenses this billing. Total of $399,835.50 in fees and $18,405.87 in expenses previously paid.
• Carr, Riggs & Ingram – Financial advisor for debtor: $93,025 in fees. Total of $945,312 in fees and $2,551.75 in expenses previously paid.
• Jones Walker – legal counsel to debtor: $713.279 in fees and $29,528.95 in expenses this billing date, $11,573,236 in fees and $315,725.90 in expenses already paid.
• Actuarial Value, LLC – actuarial advisor to committee: $11,925 ($750 per hour).
• Stegall, Benton, Melancon & Associates – real estate appraiser/valuation expert to committee: $15,907.6
• Zobrio, Inc. – computer consultant to committee: $1.400.
• Troutman Pepper Locke – co-counsel to the committee: $469,545 in fees and $5,085.67 in expenses
• Berkeley Research Group – financial advisors to the committee: $162,677.50 in fees this billing cycle, nearly $3.1 million paid previously.

The case against the Archdiocese of New Orleans has been ongoing for five years since Archbishop Gregory Aymond placed the nation’s second-oldest Roman Catholic diocese under Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings and the case has been marred by apparent conflicts of interest, legal maneuvering and outright lies and coverups. In the process of all that, the church appears to prefer paying legal and expert fees in order to avert the inevitable: payment of damages to former altar boys who were abused sexually by priests.

The archdiocese has offered a settlement of $62.5 million (bear in mind the church has already paid a third of that amount to lawyers and experts) while the plaintiffs are demanding nearly $1 billion.

All the settlement talks and expenditures by the archdiocese has prompted one court watcher to observe that he sees the priorities of the church as

• Playing the game so that the Judge doesn’t turn on them and will keep the Protective Order in place and the Church secrets (i.e., thecomplicity of the Archbishops and Church Hierarchy in the cover-up)
• Continuing to lie to the Parishioners about just how much of the money that they gave the Church under false pretenses will actually be needed to settle these cases (If settlement is at all possible); and
• Ensuring that the insurers stay at the table while the Church and its lawyers paint the insurers (for the benefit of the Judge) as the bad guys who are the ones guilty of holding up any possibility of settlement.

“As long as these three goals are being met, the Church doesn’t really care how much it costs,” he said.

And, too, remember that despite all this time and the millions raked in by the professionals, the victims have yet to see a dime.

Maybe that’s why they call them professionals.