Brit-Brit Paid $2.7M in Legal Fees

And that’s apparently a LOW estimate, and it doesn’t include 2009. $2.7M is what Britney Spears’ estate has paid lawyers since her father took over her life via a conservatorship in 2007.

At least 17 lawyers and firms have had a hand in Spears’ personal or business matters in the 14 months since a judge determined she was not competent to manage her life and multimillion-dollar music empire herself.

The legal work has not come cheap, according to court papers, including an accounting filed in Superior Court in Los Angeles on Monday. The singer’s estate or the trust that holds most of her assets paid at least $2.7 million in lawyers’ fees and costs, and probably much more, during the initial 11 months of the court-ordered conservatorship, the filings show. Many attorneys continue to work on the case, accruing additional fees that will be submitted for approval at a later date.

Attorneys contacted about their fees did not return calls or declined to comment.

The number of attorneys has been a source of amusement and criticism. At a recent court hearing, half a dozen attorneys representing the singer, her father and her estate formed a wall of gray flannel and banker’s boxes that obscured the audience’s view of the judge and prompted a puzzled opposing attorney to wonder aloud, “Which one of you am I supposed to talk to?”

Another opponent sniped then that “Miss Britney Spears is being bled dry by these proceedings.”

Retired probate judge Arnold Gold, who has not reviewed Spears’ case, said that although legal fees may sound large, many bills — such as those from divorce or entertainment attorneys — would be incurred whether the conservatorship was in place or not.

“The mere dollar amount doesn’t automatically mean it is inappropriate,” said Gold, who presided over the settling of Tupac Shakur’s estate. “It’s quite appropriate, particularly in the entertainment field, to incur and have to pay very, very, very sizable attorneys’ fees.”

So, ya know, $2.7M sounds like a lot of money, but it’s really nothing when you consider that these legal proceedings probably saved her life, and certainly saved her career. She had a #1 album and she’s on a sold-out tour — lucrative stuff — and if her father hadn’t taken that conservatorship, she’d probably be dead, and she’d certainly not be creating new albums or touring (you’ll recall that she didn’t manage to do a tour to support Blackout — she barely managed to make a music video for it). Plus I’m pretty sure those fees are tax-deductible. This is probably way less of a big deal than people are making it out to be. I don’t think Britney Spears is pacing around backstage at her sold-out tours mourning a couple mil going to her lawyers.