Price tag for Detroit's bankruptcy law firm hits $26 million

(Reuters) - The law firm shepherding Detroit through the biggest-ever municipal bankruptcy has charged the city just over $26 million, according to a report on Monday from a court-appointed fee examiner. The supplemental report adds $3 million in fees and nearly $83,000 in expenses billed in March by Jones Day, the former law firm of Detroit's state-appointed emergency manager, Kevyn Orr. Those amounts were not included in the January-March quarterly report fee examiner Robert Fishman submitted to U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Aug. 5. The addition of the March numbers brings Jones Day's total billing from July 2013 to March 2014 to $25.1 million in fees and $1 million in expenses. It also brings the total price tag for all of Detroit's professional services in the historic case and reported so far by the fee examiner to about $55 million. Orr has said he hopes the final cost will not reach the hundreds of millions of dollars. Jefferson County, Alabama, which was the largest municipal bankruptcy before the Motor City filed for protection in July 2013, spent only about $25 million on its two-year case. Fishman's subsequent quarterly reports will likely show ballooning costs, reflecting work by the city's lawyers and consultants ahead of a key confirmation hearing and their participation in the hearing, which started on Sept. 2 and is scheduled to last through Oct. 17. Judge Steven Rhodes will use the hearing to determine if the city's plan to adjust $18 billion of debt is fair and feasible. (Reporting by Karen Pierog in Chicago; additional reporting by Lisa Lambert in Detroit; editing by Matthew Lewis)