A Manhattan judge has lashed out at law firm Mayer Brown’s fees in a case where the firm was representing the son of one of its CEO clients. The firm, which was not billing the client, asked for a $126,000 fee for helping recover a $6400 security deposit for two tenants and damages from the landlord. Judge Frank Nervo said of the fee: ‘Given the fact that the items billed for, and the number of hours allegedly spent on them, is incredible, the court finds there is no basis to award any fee. This is particularly true given the additional fact that counsel is not even billing its client for legal services and by its own admission used the case to garner good will.’
'Duplicated effort'
The judge complained that the plaintiff’s submission of a 14 page statement for counsel services ‘demonstrates much duplicated effort, research on the most basic and banal legal principles that a client could reasonably expect counsel charging minimally $405 per hour would have proior knowledge of, not requiring review or oversight by a more senior associate, Jason I Kirschner, at $615 per hour and a partner, Lee N.Abrams, at $895 per hour, all as unabashedly invoiced here. ‘ Source: ABA Journal
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