Mall giant General Growth allowed to hire more advisers

General Growth Properties Inc. won permission to hire nine more firms for legal and business services in bankruptcy.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper in Manhattan today allowed General Growth to hire law firms Halperin Battaglia Raicht LLP as conflicts counsel to the committee of unsecured creditors, Calvo & Clark LLP as special litigation counsel to the debtors, and Silverstein & Pomerantz LLP and Bracewell & Giuliani LLP as special counsel for the debtors.

General Growth, which filed the biggest real-estate bankruptcy in U.S. history April 16, already has two main law firms advising it in bankruptcy. On May 20, Gropper gave the company permission to hire both Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, overruling concerns that two of the largest bankruptcy law firms would duplicate work.

General Growth won permission today to hire tax advisers Grant Thornton LLP, Assessment Technologies Ltd., PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Baker & Daniels LLP. Hewitt Associates LLC will be hired as a compensation consultant.

"I'll grant the motions," Gropper said, noting that General Growth and the firms negotiated with the U.S. Trustee about the hirings.

The U.S. Trustee's Office, the arm of the Justice Department that monitors bankruptcies, had objected to the mall operator's retaining Kirkland & Ellis LLP as co-counsel, citing duplicative work that could make the case more expensive.

General Growth, based in Chicago, filed for bankruptcy- court protection on April 16, after amassing $27 billion in debt during an acquisition spree that turned it into the second- largest shopping mall owner behind Simon Property Group Inc.

The case is In re General Growth Properties Inc., 09-11977, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York.