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BigLaw agency faces questions over $35M invoice
Brazilian billionaire Alberto Safra is difficult a $35 million invoice from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.
Brazilian billionaire Alberto Safra is difficult a $35 million invoice from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, which included fees from one accomplice who stated he labored greater than 19 hours in at some point.
Safra, who was represented by Wilmer in a dispute over his deceased father Joseph Safra’s $23 billion fortune, requested that London’s Excessive Court docket assess a number of of the agency’s invoices in 2024, in response to Law.com. The court docket reportedly heard that Wilmer charged Safra greater than $162,000 in at some point, with its high companions billing $2,095 an hour. This was $265 extra per hour than Safra agreed to earlier within the case.
In his March 24 ruling, Decide Colum Charles Leonard stated “all through the entire invoices, there are fees that are so excessive as to lift concern.” He particularly referenced Washington D.C. accomplice John Trenor’s fees for 19.3 hours in at some point in addition to one other 24-hour interval during which 9 charge earners billed for 130.2 hours.
The choose additionally identified that Wilmer initiated two charge will increase with out notifying Safra. He stated this elevated the hourly charges of the agency’s attorneys by 14%.
“Price will increase could also be commonplace, however in circumstances the place the agreed charges have been already so excessive, the necessity to increase them additional (so rapidly, and by a lot) requires a proof,” Leonard stated.
Whereas Leonard acknowledged that Wilmer’s group “labored extraordinarily exhausting, beneath substantial strain, to assist the claimant obtain his targets” and that its lengthy hours “are commensurate with the dimensions of labor,” he ordered a full evaluation of the regulation agency’s invoice.
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