Articles Posted in Cost Disciplines in Legal

The 54-page opinion in which U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of Illinois Judge Mary Gorman explained her reduction of a nationally prominent law firm’s $1.8 million fee down to $670,000 offers a case study of the billable hour’s perverse incentives.

Under “General Mistakes and Carelessness”, the Judge detailed important errors in the Law Firm’s fee statement.

Those errors show two consequences of using the billable hour to price lawyers’ services:

First, the “rack-em-up” focus on maximizing hours billed gives lawyers incentive to — knowingly or not — charge clients more than the work calls for.

Second, in the attempt to maximize those hours billed, attorneys can easily — intentionally or otherwise — obscure from the client’s view who-did-what-for-how-much.

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Four points among several Judge Gorman made here:

1. She called out the Law Firm for charging $234,450.50 for work they’d, “either not included in the billing invoices or … never actually earned”. After specific cuts, the Judge reduced the remainder of the $1.8 million requested by 20%. 

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On July 10, 2018 U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of Illinois Judge Mary Gorman issued a 54-page opinion explaining why she cut a law firm’s requested total hourly fee of $1.8 million down to an approved total hourly fee of $670,000.

Judge Gorman was responsible to approve or disapprove legal fees charged to the debtor by the debtor’s law firm because those fees are paid out of the bankruptcy estate’s assets.

The judge’s explanation of her drastic fee cut offers a case study in the perverse incentives of the billable hour.

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Notes on format and content:

1. The text in this and the following two posts doesn’t refer to the law firm or its attorneys by name — but to the Law Firm, or to Attorney A, Attorney B, etc. This post’s purpose is to make a point about cost control and management of legal work — not to embarrass anyone.

The Law Firm ranks among the American Lawyer magazine’s “AmLaw200” — the 200 largest U.S. law firms by gross revenue and other key metrics.

2. While I don’t wish to embarrass anyone, I do need to substantiate what I say by reference to objective sources. Therefore the law firm and lawyers named in Judge Gorman’s 54-page opinion can be readily identified in it. Also, I consulted other court filings on the electronic docket (pay wall) for In re: Earl Gaudio & Son, Inc. at Case No. 13-90942.

3. Unlike this blog, Judge Gorman’s opinion did not address the wisdom of pricing lawyers’ services by reference to billable hours versus an alternative fee arrangement. To the contrary, when a lawyer seeks approval of legal fees from a federal court, the billable hour is the standard because that is the conventional model of the legal profession. (I followed this practice myself three years ago after winning a judgment for my client in a civil rights lawsuit — because I had to.)

4. My argument is not that use of the billable hour necessarily leads to excess costs and wasted effort — but that it creates incentives that make those bad outcomes more likely.

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I begin with Judge Gorman’s summary offered at the end of her 54-page opinion — with underlined headings that I’ve provided:

Failure to “Focus on this Case as Required”

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