Chicago Paid Lawyers Billing 69 Hours In One Day - Above the Law

"The Chicago Tribune's Joe Mahr and Jason Meisner embarked on a deep dive into legal invoices paid by the city of Chicago to its stable of private law firms - specifically those handling federal civil rights cases defending the city from people who had their lives stolen by Chicago police misconduct."

"One bill logged 69 hours for a single attorney over a 24-hour stretch. A different firm had one person clocking 24+ hours on 15 separate occasions."

"In the last decade, roughly 1,500 invoices got flagged by this 10-hour heuristic. The city reduced payment on 139 of them, and the remaining 90 percent or so got paid to the penny."

Chicago's legal invoices revealed alarming billing practices, with firms charging for timekeepers logging over 24 hours in a day. The Tribune found at least 40 instances of excessive billing, including one attorney charging 69 hours in a single day. Despite the city's use of CounselLink to flag excessive hours, the majority of flagged invoices were still paid in full. This raises questions about the effectiveness of the city's oversight mechanisms in managing legal expenses and ensuring accurate billing from outside counsel.

Read at Above the Law