A couple of recent surveys have confirmed, that in these cost savings days fueled even more by the lingering recession, many more law firms and lawyers are absorbing online research costs as overhead rather than passing them onto clients for payment. Mattern & Associates’ 2012 Cost Recovery survey reported that clients increasingly […]
13 Tips for Fashioning a Value-Fee Engagement Letter. Patrick J. Lamb, in a November 7, 2012 post in the on-line version of the ABA Journal, offers these list of issues to be addressed in an engagement letter using value fees (although many of them sound good in retainer agreements in general): 1.
Co-contributor Marc noticed a somewhat chilling story about borrowers who successfully won a fraudulent “dual tracking” case against OneWest Bank. (“Dual tracking” is the nomenclature for the practice by which some lenders simultaneously pursued foreclosure remedies while attempting loan modification negotiations with borrowers.) According to an October 31, 2012 story in the
As reported by Lou Ponsi in the October 26, 2012 online issue of The Orange County Register, Brea City Council candidate Steve Vargas brought a suit challenging the city clerk’s alleged omission in allowing attribution of oppositions to two ballot measures to the entire city council rather than just two city councilmen who
However, Law Partners At Top Firms Now Make 23 Times What Average U.S. Worker Makes, Up From 11 Times From 25 Years Ago. In her October 15, 2012 post at the ABA Law Journal, Debra Cassens Weiss indicates that Bruce MacEwen believes that U.S. law firms are offering cut-rate fees to clients to
We thank our friends at the National Association of Legal Fee Analyses (NALFA) for recent posts on its Attorney Fee Blog, which we have culled and now summarize for you. U.S. Trustee Proposed Guidelines. NALFA’s September 1, 2012 post: The U.S. Trustees Program met in May of this year to discuss proposed
B of A Discount Proposal to Attorneys Getting More Customer Referrals From It Draws Uproar. As reported by Debra Cassens Weiss in an October 11, 2012 post on the ABA Journal, some legal experts are in an uproar over the Bank of America seeking a credit on its annual attorney’s fees payables based
Had Requested $778,535, But Court Rejected the Request. As reported by Ryan Abbott in an October 5, 2012 post at Courthouse News Service, Winston Strawn attorney Ernest Fleischer saved shareholders of defunct S&L Benj. Franklin Federal Savings and Loan Association a huge amount of taxes–cutting a $1.2 billion tax IRS claim down to
Acritas Survey on 2011 General Counsel Reasons for Dropping Outside Counsel Reports Results. Debra Cassens Weiss, in an October 2, 2012 post at the ABA Journal, informs us that Acritas, a UK-based market research firm, conducted a phone survey of a couple thousand general counsel in about 45 countries, asking them about terminating
$250,000 Goes to Plaintiffs’ Attorneys; UC Spent More Than $1 Million Defending The Case, With $320,000 to Outside Firm For Protest Response Advice. As reported by Terence Chea of the Associated Press in a September 26, 2012 release, the University of California has agreed to pay $1 million to 21 plaintiff demonstrators who
