Campbell Estate Legal Fees Escalate

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Legal billings reaching $1,120 a hour are boosting attorneys fees for the estate of Glenn Campbell to nearly $325,000 from just one firm and the details of the legal services provided remain largely unknown to the public.
In a series of filings stretching over a month and a half, Kimberly Campbell, the late singer's widow and executor, has sought court approval for billings of a California lawyer, who was the entertainer's lawyer, neighbor and friend.
Heavily redacted Court documents filed and approved in mid-May were only made available to the public this week. Those include a May 14 order by Davidson County Probate Court Judge David "Randy" Kennedy approving fees of $130,400 to Greenberg Traurig Law or GT Law.
The same California law firm today (Monday) submitted a request for an additional $198,488 in fees and expenses with much of the total atrributed to the services of Jay L. Cooper, the Los Angeles lawyer who says he has represented Campbell for the past 30 years.
According to Kimberly Campbell's filing, the GT law firm has provided essential legal services on such issues as intellectual property, royalty rights and preserving the value of the entertainer's assets.
All of the services were for the benefit of the estate, Kimberly Campbell's petition asserts.
In a 111-page attachment, Cooper provided a highly redacted listing of the services provided to the estate from Nov. 1, 2019 to March 31 of this year. During the course of the litigation Cooper's hourly fee has risen from $980 an hour to $1,120 and hour.
"The rates are reasonable and consistent" with fees charged by other attorneys, the filing states.
Suffering from Alzheimer's Disease, Campbell died in 2017. The filing of his estate and will followed a year later triggering a will challenge from three of his children who were specifically excluded from any inheritance.
Though that challenge was eventually abandoned, challenges to the estate expenses continued. Earlier this year a probate master ordered the estate to provide the court with an unredacted version of the legal billings.
Those details, however, were to be filed "under seal," and only available to the court, not the public.
The 111-page filing made public this week is peppered with large back boxes often excluding what was being discussed or with whom the discussion or correspondance was taking place.
An entry for May 22, 2020 lists a telephone conference with BLANK. Another entry lists a charge for a Jan. 13, 2020 correspondence.
"Review correspondence re assignment from BLANK," another entry states.
An Oct. 19 entry lists a charge of $315 for "a telephone call with BLANK." A $1,504 billing is listed to review a "museum agreement."
The filing even blacks out the address of the Campbell Family Trust, the sole beneficiary of the estate, according to court filings.
Kennedy already has approved other legal and related expenses including $20,187 in accounting fees.