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Billing and Collecting Client Fees: Ethical Considerations

Avoiding Sanctions and Malpractice Liability

Recording of a 90-minute CLE webinar/teleconference with Q&A

Conducted on Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Recorded event now available

This CLE webinar will review the ethical dilemmas that arise due to law firms’ billing and collection practices. The panel will outline practical strategies for avoiding ethical violations and legal liability.

Description

Businesses under economic stress are falling behind or delaying paying outstanding bills, including legal services bills. Law firms, also facing financial pressures, must pursue collecting past-due fees, with the additional pressure to maintain legal ethics standards.

Billing and fee collection has long been a complicated area for the legal profession. When billing disputes arise, attorneys must balance their personal interest in collecting fees against their duty of loyalty to their clients. For this reason, billing disputes are subject to close scrutiny.

To minimize client disputes over billing and fee collection and to avoid ethical missteps, attorneys must immediately review and reconsider their policies and practices surrounding fee agreements, time tracking and billing and collections.

Listen as our authoritative panel of attorneys examines the ethical dilemmas inherent in law firms’ billing and collection practices and offers practical steps firms can take to avoid ethical violations and legal liability.

Outline

Setting the stage
1. Fee agreements
2. Timekeeping and expenses
3. Billing forms
Common ethical challenges and best practices for law firms
1. Resolving billing disputes
2. Charging interest on overdue bills
3. Withdrawal from representation
4. Using a collection agency — confidentiality issues
5. Filing a lawsuit against a non-paying client

Benefits

The panel will review these and other key questions:

What are the ethics rules that govern the billing and fee collection process?
What are some best practices attorneys can use to collect past-due fees while meeting legal ethics standards?
What options do attorneys have for resolving billing disputes with clients?

Faculty

Mari Henry Leigh, Partner
Meckler Bulger Tilson Marick & Pearson, Chicago

She chairs the firm’s Attorney Fee Practice Group that provides services in the areas of attorney fee and legal fee disputes, legal bill reviews and audits, attorney ethics and legal malpractice. She chairs The Chicago Bar Association’s Professional Fees Committee and is an advisory board member for the Council for Ethical Billing. She also maintains an active complex civil litigation practice.

David J. McMahon, Partner
Barger & Wolen, San Francisco, Calif.

He is Managing Partner of the Firm’s San Francisco office. His practice focuses on large complex litigation, appellate litigation, reinsurance litigation and counseling clients on attorney fee disputes and ethical issues relating to the practice of law. He has extensive experience in e-discovery, large case document management, and efficient use of technology to streamline handling of large cases.

Ordering

Online CLE

Includes audio streaming of full program plus handouts (available 24 hours after live seminar).

CLE: Pre-approved for participatory or non-traditional/alternate format credit in: CA, HI*, NY*, WV*. Pre-approved for self-study credit in: AK, AZ, ID, MO, MT, TX, VT, WA.
Upon request, also available in: CO, CT*, FL, GA, KY, LA, ME, NC, ND, NE, NH, NM, NV, OR*, SC, TN, UT, WI*, WY. If you are applying for credit in one of these states, make sure to select those states when placing your order.
(*Indicates that Strafford must report attendance.)

Online CLE Audio $148.50
Available 24 hours after the live event