Recently I had a doctor come to me for help sorting out a large legal bill he had incurred with a BIG law firm. He had a Medicare billing problem and had gotten into some trouble with the feds. Although he incurred several hundred thousand in legal fees from this BIG law firm, the firm did little to resolve his Medicare billing problems. So the cardiologist went to an attorney at a small firm who was able to quickly and satisfactorily the Medicare billing issues. The total bill from the new attorney at the small firm was less than $10,000.
The problems I found with the legal bills from the large firm filled a 12 page opinion letter. But beyond the individual billing issues, it was pretty clear to me in reviewing the BIG firm’s bills that the client had got caught up in what I call the “protocol of a BIG law firm.” It never fails, but whenever I do a legal bill audit of a BIG law firm’s legal bills, I always find the same things. What I find is that each BIG firm tends to approach any legal matter the same way which is to overstaff, overwork, overbill and overlook any real opportunities to quickly and efficiently resolve a matter for a client. Continue reading