Billable hours: Where does Nixon Peabody rank?

[Nixon Peabody law firm handled Newseum project]

Let's just rename it the Hey, It's Legal Forum.

Eight days after I first asked, Freedom Forum finally coughed up a statement, defending nearly $66,000 in grants to a non-profit adoption agency run by founder Al Neuharth's wife. Even worse, the foundation's reported explanation -- the gifts were legal -- is hardly the spirited intellectual defense you'd expect from a journalism charity that incoming President Ken Paulson just called the Yankee Stadium of the First Amendment.

But maybe extremely well-paid Freedom Forum marketing chief Susan Bennett needed all that time because she sought counsel from the foundation's extremely well-paid legal advisors, Nixon Peabody. The firm -- which has been Gannett's long-time counsel, too -- represented Freedom Forum in the planning, construction and development of its signature project, the Newseum. That included shepherding the record $100 million land deal back in 2000 for the museum's new, high-profile location at 555 Pennsylvania Ave.

$3.3 million in legal bills
Lord knows, Freedom Forum administrators have spent plenty on legal bills overall in recent years: $3.3 million from 2000-2007, according to the foundation's public Internal Revenue Service returns (see chart, inset). The returns do not appear to say which firms got how much.

In any case, look at how legal fees shot up in recent years: More than 40% of the $3.3 million was in 2006-2007 alone. That was a time when Freedom Forum's administrators were spending lots on non-profits that veered far afield of the foundation's mission. Plus, those expenditures came while they were simultaneously bringing the $450 million Newseum project in for a crash landing -- three years late, and $200 million over initial cost projections.

Something's driving up legal costs. But, what -- and which firm's profiting the most? Please post replies in the comments section, below. Or e-mail via gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.