You can go bankrupt going bankrupt.

It only takes a few looks at the bills attorneys in various home builder bankruptcies are sending in to see that’s true.

WCI Communities, for instance, in a mournful 10-Q filed yesterday, once again expressed doubts about the company’s ability to continue as a “going concern” and pointed out that no matter how much executives cut costs, the savings seemed to be offset by the expense of its Chapter 11 filing.

In September the company estimated that it would spend between $8 and $11 million in that quarter on costs related to the filing. They actually spent more than $17.7 million according to the 10-Q.

TOUSA is said to be spending between $6- and $10-million a month in fees related to its year-old case.
 
And, looking at the details of the bills LandSource attorneys have submitted to the bankruptcy court for approval, makes it clear how fast charges can ratchet up. One of the busier attorneys representing LandSource bills $850 an hour. The hourly fees ranged from $355 to $950 an hour.

Then consider that they bill individually when they meet to talk about the case. They even bill you for the time it takes to bill you. Then there are office expenses, costs of copies and mailings and Internet access and travel.

In December LandSource’s law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges billed $637,722.40 for professional fees, only 80% of the actual $797,153 it actually logged, and $17,778.47 for expenses.

And that was a light month. The month before the bankruptcy filing the firm billed nearly $1.6 million in fees and more than $53,000 in expenses. The firm's fees have been over $1 million for three of the last six months.

There was even a charge in the billings for talking to me for a story I wrote on LandSource. I’m not sure how much that conversation cost, because I was lumped in with some other conversations, but I’m sure it wasn’t more than 10 minutes, which would have been $141.

Since I don't make anywhere near $14 a minute, all of those bills got me thinking about a career change. Besides the paycheck, there looks to be some job security. After all, bankruptcy law seems like a profession that is thriving during the downturn, at least until folks figure out it’s cheaper not to file for bankruptcy.

Sure there’s a fair amount of schooling involved and it requires a boredom threshold high enough to allow you to read and write volumes of documents in Jabberwocky without falling asleep. But at $850 an hour I might be able to drink enough Red Bull to stay awake long enough to earn a pretty tidy weekly wage in say, three hours, four if I were greedy.

Hey, I have to read that stuff anyway.