The New Orleans Archdiocese is paying attorneys and accountants about $13 million in the ongoing bankruptcy proceedings stemming from clergy abuse cases, according to federal court documents filed this month.
For the law firm of Jones Walker LLP alone, the archdiocese is on the hook to pay out $10.9 million since the law firm was retained by the archdiocese in June of 2020, according to a July 19 summary sheet on compensation and reimbursement of expenses filed with the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Other summary sheets showed that the Blank Rome LLP law firm has performed $701,692 in services and expenses since June of 2020. The accounting firm Keegan, Linscott & Associates PC will get $214,308 for services and expenses incurred for financial advice to the archdiocese, and the accounting firm Carr, Riggs & Ingram LLC has sought compensation for services and expenses totaling $708,199.
The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020 amid lawsuits alleging that plaintiffs were the victims of childhood sexual abuse by clergy members. In 2018, the archdiocese compiled a list of 57 clergy who were “credibly accused.” But since then, other names have been added, and the Lamothe Law Firm in New Orleans reports that 81 clergy members have been credibly accused of abuse as of last year.
The archdiocese said in a statement emailed to the Louisiana Record that it was "extremely displeased" with the costs stemming from the bankruptcy proceedings and the time the litigation was taking. Spokeswoman Sarah McDonald said the archdiocese supports fair compensation for abuse survivors and other creditors.
"The complications that have arisen in these bankruptcy proceedings could not have been predicted, have driven up the cost, consumed valuable time and added to a shared feeling of frustration amongst survivors, claimants and the archdiocese," she said. "Our legal team has worked at a discounted rate since 2020 and continues to work at a rate at least 50% lower than counsel for the creditor committees, who received court approval for rate increases in January 2023."
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) argues that church dioceses in the U.S. tend to reject the idea of dividing up the worth of available assets for the benefit of the sexual abuse victims.
“Our impression has been that most of the Catholic dioceses, including the Archdiocese of New Orleans, would rather pay money to their attorneys rather than the victims they have harmed," Melanie Sakoda, SNAP’s survivor support director, told the Record. “In California bankruptcy cases, if you look at real property owned by the Catholic Church, they really have enough money to compensate all the victims."
Those properties include church and school buildings, shopping centers and apartment buildings, according to Sakoda.
The impact of archdiocese bankruptcy proceedings is to pay less to the victims and hide information about the abuse cases, she said.
“When it goes to bankruptcy court, the plaintiffs, the injured people, are no longer plaintiffs in a lawsuit for damages,” Sakoda said. “They’re creditors, and all the issue is what money they receive.”
The New Orleans bankruptcy proceedings will take time to sort out, she said, even though some of the victims have waited 40 to 60 years for their cases to be heard.
“I would like the federal government to step in because I think this is an abuse of the bankruptcy process,” Sakoda said.