Blue-Chip Bilking: Regulation of Billing and Expense Fraud by Lawyers

This study of recent cases of billing and expense fraud confirms the views of David Wilkins, Ted Schneyer, and many other scholars that the disciplinary system performs only one of several needed regulatory functions. The cases demonstrate the need for public and private regulatory responses that not only receive and investigate complaints, but also provide education, prevention, proactive monitoring, and remediation. Lawyers who engage in billing and expense fraud should be fired, disbarred, prosecuted on criminal charges, sued for malpractice. If the public and private organizations that can attend to this problem take it seriously, the norms in the legal profession might shift to require that lawyers be candid and truthful in billing clients

Regulation of Unethical Billing Practices: Progress and Prospects

During the last ten years billing fraud by lawyers has been recognized as a serious problem that undermines clients\u27 trust of lawyers and the reputation of the profession as a whole. It used to be thought that lawyers who wanted to steal their clients\u27 money would just take money out of the trust account. In recent years it has become clear that dishonest lawyers\u27 methods of misappropriation are far more diverse than that. The focus of this paper is on billing misconduct by lawyers who contract with their clients to bill by the hour. I will not talk about lawyers who borrow from their trust accounts or manipulate contingent fees

Mediation of Wife Abuse Cases: The Adverse Impact of Informal Dispute Resolution on Women

This Article articulates a law enforcement critique of domestic violence mediation. It will explain the feminist view that mediation in abuse cases is based on misconceptions about the nature of wife abuse, and that mediation not only fails to protect women from subsequent violence, but also perpetuates their continued victimization. The Article will recommend that other remedies be preferred over mediation. Recognizing that many programs will persist in mediation of wife abuse cases, however, the Article recommends that those programs should adopt procedures which will offer protection to victims of abuse, will make clear to the abuser that stopping the violence is his responsibility, and will allow enforcement of mediation agreements

A Double Standard for Lawyer Dishonesty: Billing Fraud Versus Misappropriation

In this Article, I examine the dishonest billing practices alleged to have occurred and the analysis of the dishonesty by the Hearing Committee and the court. I offer a critique of the investigation of the case, the findings of fact and the legal standards applied. I compare this billing fraud case to the leading case on misappropriation of client funds in the District of Columbia. I argue that the decision-makers (Hearing Committee, Board on Professional Responsibility, and court of appeals) have gone to great lengths to avoid addressing the very grave dishonesty that led to this disciplinary matter. I speculate as to some possible reasons for this deference. Finally, I urge that the disciplinary standard on lawyer dishonesty should be interpreted and enforced even-handedly, especially when the purpose of the dishonesty is to take client funds to which the lawyer or the firm is not entitled