Over at at the TaxProf Blog the sorry tale is told of an attorney who billed his client $5,737.50 for drafting and filing two briefs in a bankruptcy matter: billed as 25.5 hours it seems. So far so ordinary, and indeed even reasonable.
The trouble was that the attorney in question produced such a detailed and scholarly work that the judge smelled a Rattus Norvegicus and demanded a certification of authorship. The court then resorted to Google (a court gathering evidence on its own?! Was Robin Jacob LLJ presiding?) and found that it was the work of others.
Having been held to have violated a professional rule the attorney was then required to undergo retraining with an emphasis on not nicking other people’s work.
His behaviour was, of course, appalling and it merited disciplinary action: billing $200/hour what was he thinking !? One can’t pimp out a third six pupil for as little as that. As for plagiarism, well, come on who hasn’t recycled once in a while. It’s the green thing to do, so long as it is well done …
That phrase...
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