Billing Misconduct Charges Against Contract Lawyer

On the false billing front, the Illinois ARDC recently filed charges alleging that an attorney employed by a temp service at $35 per hour to conduct a document review for Mayer Brown. The charges allege that the attorney worked a shade less than 52 hours but billed for 135 hours. Let’s see if it takes the Illinois disciplinary system over nine years to resolve this case (as D.C. took in a case posted earlier today). Since this matter involves a contract lawyer, rather than a highly compensated partner in a major firm (as in the D.C. case), I suspect the result will be both faster and less sympathetic to the accused lawyer. (Mike Frisch)