NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
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Thursday, July 29, 2021
Feds protest law firm’s $3.8 million bill in Easterday bankruptcy
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
YAKIMA — The U.S. Depart-
ment of Justice has objected to a
$3.8 million legal bill submitted by
a Los Angeles law firm oversee-
ing the liquidation of the bankrupt
Easterday ranches and farms in the
Columbia Basin.
The bill, with others to follow,
covers work that lawyers with
Pachulski, Stang, Ziehl and Jones
did between Feb. 1 and May 31.
Hourly rates averaged $1,053, with
one attorney charging $1,695 an
hour, according to court records.
The rates far exceed what local
lawyers involved in the case are
seeking and are substantially
higher than fees attorneys recently
collected in a more complicated
bankruptcy case in Eastern Wash-
ington, according to Assistant U.S.
Trustee Gary Dyer, the govern-
ment watchdog in the bankruptcy
proceeding.
The L.A. firm’s bill, submit-
ted this month to U.S. Bankruptcy
Judge Whitman Holt in Yakima,
fails to justify the fees, Dyer stated
in an objection filed Friday, July 23.
The firm vaguely described its
services, had too many nonpar-
ticipating lawyers attend court
hearings and over-billed by miscal-
culating hours, Dyer claimed.
He asked Holt to reduce the fees
and perhaps withhold them until the
L.A. firm provides fuller descrip-
tions of its work.
Efforts to reach the firm’s lead
attorney on the case, Richard
Pachulski, were unsuccessful.
George Plaven/Capital Press, File
Cody Easterday has pleaded guilty to defrauding Tyson Fresh Meats and another company of $244 million. The
U.S. Department of Justice has objected to a $3.8 million legal bill submitted by a Los Angeles law firm oversee-
ing the liquidation of the bankrupt Easterday ranches and farms in the Columbia Basin.
The firm specializes in bank-
ruptcies and was hired by new
Easterday directors shortly after
Cody Easterday resigned as head
of Easterday Ranches and Easter-
day Farms.
Cody Easterday, 50, later
pleaded guilty to defrauding Tyson
Fresh Meats and another company
of $244 million by billing them for
buying and feeding cattle that didn’t
exist. He agreed to pay restitution
and is scheduled to be sentenced
Oct. 5 on one count of wire fraud.
He faces up to 20 years in prison.
Separate from restitution in
the criminal case, the Easterday
companies — owned by Cody East-
erday, his wife and mother — owe
millions of dollars to creditors.
Farmland Reserve Inc., owned
by the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, will buy several
Easterday farms for $209 million,
but the money has to be allocated.
The Pachulski firm was one
of three law firms involved in
the bankruptcy proceedings that
submitted a first round of legal bills
this month.
In a court filing, Pachulski
defended its rates as reasonable,
saying its lawyers overcame objec-
tions and organized an auction that
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maximized the value of the Easter-
day properties for creditors.
Dyer unfavorably compared
hourly rates sought by Pachulski to
other attorneys’ fees.
Senior members of a law firm
that restructured Astria Health,
a Yakima County health-care
provider, billed $800 an hour, Dyer
noted. Liquidating farm properties
will be simpler, according to Dyer.
Two Seattle firms also are work-
ing on the Easterday bankruptcy.
The lead attorney for Davis Wright
Tremaine charged $800 an hour,
while the lead attorney for Bush
Kornfeld billed $450 an hour.
Brown signs ambitious
clean energy bill
TODAY
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By SARA CLINE
The Associated Press/Report for America
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PORTLAND — Gov. Kate Brown on Tues-
day, July 27, signed Oregon’s clean energy bill,
which sets one of the most ambitious timelines
in the country for moving to 100% clean elec-
tricity sources.
The legislation lays out a timetable for the
state’s two major power companies — Portland
General Electric and Pacific Power — to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions associated with elec-
tricity sold to consumers. Additionally, it bans
the expansion or new construction of power
plants that burn fossil fuels and allocates $50
million in grants for community-based energy
projects, among other measures.
“With these policies, we will create jobs in a
21st-century, clean-energy economy,” Brown
said. “We will reduce carbon emissions. And,
we will make sure the economic, environmental
and health benefits of our clean energy econ-
omy reach all Oregonians, especially those
who have been disproportionately impacted
by climate change and pollution.”
The bill requires Portland General Electric
and Pacific Power to submit plans to reduce
emissions by 80% from a baseline amount by
2030, 90% by 2035 and 100% by 2040.
At least 17 other states and the District
of Columbia already adopted similar goals,
according to the Clean Energy States Alliance.
But officials say Oregon’s timeline is the
“strongest electricity emissions reduction time-
line in the country.” The deadline is nearer
than nearly every other state that has adopted
a clean power plan, including Washington and
California.
“Already, we are seeing the devastating
impacts of climate change, from more frequent
drought to more severe wildfire seasons that
put our homes and our families in jeopardy,”
said Rep. Jason Kropf, D-Bend, who is a spon-
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NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
By contrast, Isaac Pachulski
presented an hourly rate of $1,695.
He worked on the case for 1.6 hours,
adding $2,712 to the bill.
His brother, Richard Pachul-
ski, reported working 224.7 hours
at $1,592 per hour for a total of
$358,396.
Hourly rates charged by firm
attorneys were at least $695 an hour.
Besides Isaac and Richard
Pachulski, hourly rates for 11
other attorneys in the L.A. firm
exceeded $1,000 an hour, ranging
from $1,395 to $1,025, according to
court records. One attorney billed
$538 after spending less than a half
hour on the case.
Some lawyers described their
activities as “attention to” or “work
on” the case.
“We requested amplification of
these entries ... to understand what
was actually being done,” Dyer
stated in his brief.
“(The firm’s) response was that
the entries were litigation related
and they were shielding strategy
information. When further pressed
for amplification, (the firm) replied
it was ‘impractical,’” Dyer stated.
Five lawyers submitted bills for
attending telephonic court hearings
in which they did not participate,
according to Dyer. “The reasons
for the attendance of numerous
attorneys is simply not explained
or supported in the application,” he
stated.
Dyer reported finding at least
three cases in which billed hours
were apparently inflated by comput-
ing errors, resulting in an over-bill-
ing of $2,042.
sor of the bill. “This bill will put Oregon on
a pathway for a more environmentally sound
future and create economic opportunity and
jobs for our working families.”
Environmental activists have called the bill’s
passage a huge victory, especially as the state
and country continue to see the worsening
effects of climate change. But the bill, which
passed in Oregon’s Senate 16-12 and in the
House 35-20, has also been criticized.
“Hiking Oregonians’ energy costs during
an economic recovery is one of the dumbest
ideas I have ever heard of,” said Senate Repub-
lican Leader Fred Girod. “This bill just adds
insult to injury to the countless Oregonians
who have endured massive hardship over the
last year and a half.”
Opponents of the bill say the policy will
increase electric prices for Oregonians, cause
business energy costs to skyrocket and put
strain on the power grid — possibly leading
to rolling blackouts.
“This bill accomplishes nothing for our
environment,” Girod said. “It is simply a bill
to virtue signal to extreme environmentalist
groups that will cause Oregonians to pay more
for less reliable energy.”
Whether or not the timeline is attainable is
also uncertain.
“If you go out to 2030, we think we can hit
that,” PacifiCorp Senior Vice President Scott
Bolton told The Oregonian last month. “We
were pretty clear though, beyond that we don’t
have a plan that shows we can get there.”
Likewise, Brett Sims, a vice president at
Portland General Electric, told The Orego-
nian the company can meet the 2030 target
by eliminating coal, operating its natural gas
fired plants to serve peaks rather than base
load demand and adding substantial wind,
solar, storage and demand reduction strategies
to its resource mix. However, the 2040 target,
he said, remains aspirational.
IN BRIEF
OHA recommends universal
mask use for all public
indoor settings
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E AST O REGONIAN
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SALEM — In response to a large spike in
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reminders that the pandemic is not over,
especially for Oregonians who remain unvac-
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