PG&E Paid Cravath $75 Million in Year Before Bankruptcy

Pacific Gas & Electric paid law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP more than $75.7 million for the one-year period before the giant California energy utility sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Cravath disclosed that PG&E paid $45 million of the fees during the 90 days before its bankruptcy filing on Jan. 29. In some bankruptcies, a debtor can recover money paid to creditors during the 90 days before the filing, if the payments were used to pay “antecedent debt,” meaning that they weren’t paid for contemporaneous services or goods.

Cravath disclosed these payments in March 22 court filings seeking court ...