Plastech Lawyers Bank $1,002,674.50 for One Month's Work
We haven't reported on the Plastech bankruptcy for some time. Well, they're still bankrupt. burning their way through a $45.15m line of credit (up $10m since we last checked). And they're still making parts for Chrysler, who is none-too-pleased about their inability to remove the tooling to make the plastic parts for the cars that they can't sell. Of course, you already know the big winner in this fiasco: the lawyers. Automotive News [AN, sub] reports that "The New York law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP on Tuesday, March 25, billed Plastech $1,002,674.50 in legal fees and $54,486.82 in expenses during the supplier's first month of Chapter 11 bankruptcy court proceedings, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Detroit." More specifically, "Skadden Arps billed Plastech for 1,835.05 hours of service at an average rate of $546.40 an hour. The $54,486.82 in expenses covered travel, printing, research and messenger fees, as well as meals for the Skadden Arps legal team." As AN points out, Skadden Arps is drinking small beer. "Supplier Federal-Mogul Corp., which emerged from more than six years of bankruptcy proceedings at the end of 2007, spent about $700 million, or $9.3 million a month, on bankruptcy related [legal] expenses."
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jthorner: I can assure you that corporate law involves much more than paper pushing. Even paralegals are much more than paper pushers nowadays. I can also assure you that lots of lawyers have done quite well in math and science. And money is not the only reason people choose law careers. The intellectual challenge and the opportunity to handle important matters are high on the list.
Ohh the vultures. This reminds me my small country, where copy-paste nation lives in an illussion that we don`t need hands for making bread, tables or buttwipes. that all we need is papers, dot coms and salesclerks or lawyers. Where everyone is proud, walking around in their Armanis with a presumably important folder. Where a person that cleans streets or works at school is considerd underdog, or not agile enough. Well, chinese have set an alarm buzzer, and it is going to set off pretty soon, those who wake up, will survive. No Genesis here.
Corporate lawyers doing "important work". HAH! Corporate lawyers argue about what has already been created while taking huge fees for themselves. They don't create a single useful thing. You cannot eat, sleep in, drive or otherwise actually use the end product of any attorney. Corporate lawyers look for ways to shield their paymasters from accountability and from competition while assuring the maximum possible dollar flow into the pockets of the masters and their loyal adjuncts. The whole field of intellectual property law has in fact held back progress. One of the many reasons China is surging forward is that they value actual results over first-to-file paperwork chases. The culture of maximizing your personal financial take which dominates the world of MBAs and corporate attorneys is part of the corrosion of American real productivity, community and joy. Billing $500 + per hour to handle the routine BS of a bankruptcy filing is not defensible.
Delphi pays their bankruptcy lawyers $12 million per month. It's easy to see why they want to get out from under both of them as fast as possible.