Picture this; with the scale of the Lehman bankruptcy, it’s likely there are young associates who entered the profession in the last year or so that are destined to spend a significant part of their entire working lives just working on Lehman. Whilst that might send a shiver down the spine of deal-loving corporate types, for the ones picking through the carcass there’s serious meat on those bones. And time recording never looked so easy – Lehman 14hrs, Lehman 16hrs, Lehman, Lehman, Lehman…

The latest figures are pretty spectacular. Bloomberg reports that Lehman paid its outside lawyers and restructuring advisers $44.5 million in July, bringing the Lehman estate’s total outside advisory fees to $917.6 million after about 22 months of Chapter 11 proceedings.

In the number one spot is Lehman’s bankruptcy counsel at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, which billed for nearly $11.7 million in fees and expenses, according to a monthly operating report filed with the SEC on Monday. That brought the firm’s total Lehman bankruptcy bill to $212.3 million, up from $200.6 million last month.

According to a Thursday SEC filing, 17 law firms have collectively billed almost $396.7 million so far. For a full breakdown check out AMLawDaily.