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39 UALR L. Rev. 1 (2016-2017)
Establishing Best Billing Practices through Billing Guidelines: Fostering Trust and Transparency on Legal Costs

handle is hein.journals/ualr39 and id is 9 raw text is: 







ESTABLISHING BEST BILLING PRACTICES THROUGH BILLING
GUIDELINES: FOSTERING TRUST AND TRANSPARENCY ON
LEGAL COSTS



     Laura  Johnson,  Howard Tollin,   Marci  Waterman,   and  Sarah Mills-
     Dirlam*

                               I. INTRODUCTION

     Managing legal costs is   always  a concern  for clients who  need  signifi-
cant legal representation. The  rise of legal auditing firms and the use of Bill-
ing  Guidelines  have  provided  law  firms'  clients with a  reliable and con-
sistent process for validating and challenging  legal fees, increasing transpar-
ency  and  communications with law firms and avoiding costly fee disputes.
There  is not  a great deal of  statutory or case  law specifically concerning
best billing practices outside of the fee dispute context; however,  that con-
text has provided  us with some  universally  accepted  standards for legal bill-
ing that should  be incorporated  into Billing Guidelines. Generally,  this case
law  arises out of: (1) post-litigation fee-shifting statutes, where a prevailing
party may   recover  only reasonable  and  necessary  legal fees and  expenses;
and  (2) what the courts interpret as reasonable fees and expenses  in a legal
invoice.'

     *  The authors wrote this article in conjunction with their vast first-hand experiences
and research at Sterling Analytics, a consulting and advisory firm that helps companies man-
age their legal expenses. Sterling Analytics is a team of skilled attorneys who review more
than a billion dollars of legal spending annually, and are well versed in all areas of practice.
Its clients come from a broad range of industries with different legal budgets but share a
common  concern: reducing legal spending while maintaining the highest service level stand-
ards. Laura Johnson is Sterling Analytics' Lead Senior Attorney and manages the review
teams for Sterling's largest clients. Ms. Johnson negotiates fee disputes, conducts on-site
audits, and creates expert reports on the reasonableness of attorneys' fees for use at trial when
retained as an expert witness. Howard M. Tollin is a Legal Fee Expert with Sterling Analytics
where he provides expert testimony and reports on the reasonableness of legal fees and ex-
penses. Mr. Tollin is also President of Sterling Risk's Environmental Services division where
he oversees consulting, risk management and brokerage services. Marci Waterman is the
Managing Director of Sterling Analytics and oversees the analysis of over a billion dollars in
legal invoices annually. Ms. Waterman's two decades practicing law has enabled her to de-
velop strategic partnerships throughout the country with litigation management teams. Sarah
Mills currently serves as Program Attorney for an online continuing legal education provider.
As a Senior Attorney with Sterling Analytics, Ms. Mills drafted Outside Counsel Billing
Guidelines and had extensive experience auditing legal bills for companies across a wide
range of industries.
    1. See Missouri v. Jenkins, 491 U.S. 274, 285-86 (1989); Richlin Sec. Serv. Co. v.
Chertoff, 553 U.S. 571, 576-80 (2008); MODEL RULES OF PROF'L CONDUCT r. 1.5(a) (Am.


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