Law Firms Rake in $235 Million for Virus-Fueled Big Bankruptcies

The coronavirus pandemic’s devastating effects on large company balance sheets are paying off for law firms, which made nearly $235 million so far this year on work leading up to the biggest bankruptcy cases.

That’s nearly double the amount of cash that firms hauled in for the same type of work in all of 2019.

Through June, 33 publicly traded companies with more than $100 million in assets each had sought court relief from creditors, according to a UCLA Law School database.

Those companies paid more than $235 million in fees to law firms either in the form of retainers ...