Last month, Baker & Hostetler, the law firm of Madoff bankruptcy trustee Irving Picard, asked the court to award it another $21.28 million in attorneys’ fees for work performed in the five months ending September 2009. Yesterday, that request was granted by the federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan, bringing the total attorneys' fees awarded to the trustee and his firm to $37.5 million.

The lawyers say they are engaged in a complex claims and recovery process, with 16,239 claims filed to date. Picard says that he has recovered about $1.2 billion thus far, and also has sued hedge funds and other large investors for another $14.8 billion. And there is no end in sight, apparently: the law firm wrote in its fee request that its "task is ongoing and will be engaged in for a number of years in order to fully understand the scope and depth of the fraud perpetrated by Mr. Madoff.'' Picard emphasizes that all fees paid to his firm will come from SIPC, not from any recovery obtained by the trustee.