Hello everyone and welcome to this Ethics Alert, which will discuss the recent suspensions of two Illinois lawyers for inflating their client billings. A summary of the disciplinary matters by the Illinois Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission is here: https://www.iardc.org/File/View/1424000?FileName=September%2023%2C%202021%20Announcements.pdf
According to the online summary of Illinois ARDC, an associate at an Illinois Law firm consented to a suspension of one year and completion of a professionalism seminar. The June 2021 disciplinary complaint alleged that the lawyer billed more than 2,000 annual hours on a closed pro bono case, earning a $12,000.00 bonus as a result.
The disciplinary complaint further states that the lawyer was terminated from employment with the law firm in February 2021 after admitting that he was improperly recording time on the closed case. The client matter involved a federal inmate who had alleged that he lost his prison job as an orderly in the law library after he complained about a new library policy. After the lawyer was terminated from the firm, he interviewed with at least four law firms and falsely claimed that he was laid off from his previous law firm since there was not enough work.
According to the summary of the Illinois ARDC, an associate at a different Illinois law firm consented to a suspension of 60 days after she submitted false billing records totaling 86.4 hours on a document review project, which resulted in an overcharge of more than $40,000.00 to a law firm client. The law firm refunded the client’s overpayment.
The disciplinary complaint in that matter states that the time that the lawyer entered into the billing system for the document review project was greater than the time recorded in the program that was used by the law firm to analyze and code digital documents and the time should have been substantially the same.
Bottom line: These are two unfortunate examples of lawyers who improperly inflated their billings which resulted in their suspensions from practice.
Be careful out there.
Disclaimer: this blog is not an advertisement, does not contain any legal advice, and does not create an attorney/client relationship and the comments herein should not be relied upon by anyone who reads it.
Joseph A. Corsmeier, Esquire
Law Office of Joseph A. Corsmeier, P.A.
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