During the last ten years billing fraud by lawyers has been recognized as a serious problem that undermines clients\u27 trust of lawyers and the reputation of the profession as a whole. It used to be thought that lawyers who wanted to steal their clients\u27 money would just take money out of the trust account. In recent years it has become clear that dishonest lawyers\u27 methods of misappropriation are far more diverse than that.
The focus of this paper is on billing misconduct by lawyers who contract with their clients to bill by the hour. I will not talk about lawyers who borrow from their trust accounts or manipulate contingent fees
