 Welcome:
Who We Are:
What We Do:
Articles & Publications:
Presentations:Last update: 04/27/12 Established 1993
|
Welcome to The Devil's Advocate
Established in 1993, The Devil's Advocate is the leading authority on legal fees. We have examined over $1 billion in legal fees in hundreds of engagements. Our clients include major corporations, government agencies, law firms, insurance companies, and anyone else who pays substantial legal fees, needs to examine the reasonableness of legal fees, or wishes to analyze litigation. We have reviewed most major law firms and hundreds of smaller firms. We are nationally-recognized for our legal fee management and litigation consulting expertise, including legal bill reviews (or "legal bill audits") and expert testimony.
Everyone is welcome to browse our site for helpful information. We have links on this website to other resources, including state bar organizations that are supposed to regulate lawyers. Follow this link for more information if you are having problems with your lawyer.
Clients and Law Firms:
Give Us a Call Before You Jump on the Alternative Fees Bandwagon
Lots of law firms, some clients, and the legal press are touting alternative legal fees, like flat fees or bonus fee hybrids, as the solution to clients' concerns about hourly fees. This is at least the third time in 20 years that hourly fees have been declared dead in favor of alternative fees. Each time the alternative fees bandwagon has been through town, we've helped firms and clients to understand that there is no panacea for unexpectedly high legal fees. Some alternative fees might fit your situation, but others (especially the ones proposed by law firms) are even worse than hourly fees.
For firms seriously interested in reasonable alternative fees, we can show you how to understand and reduce your risk so you can quote a fee that's also fair to the client. To get comfortable with alternative fees, firms need to understand themselves first. This isn't the time to load up your fee agreement with ass-covering language and hope the client doesn't ask too many questions.
We've shown clients and firms that every alternative fee has its own disadvantages as well as advantages. Before you abandon hourly fees, you should know what you're getting into. Contact us for more information.
|
The
authoritative text on legal fees & how to manage
them is ... |
||
 |
|
Legal Fees: Law & Management
by John Toothman & Prof. William G. Ross
published by Carolina
Academic Press |
|
Two New Books for Clients &
Lawyers by John Toothman Available online as e-books. |
||
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Our Legal Fees Paper: To Get Paid, Get Reasonable An article we presented at an ABA Litigation Section conference. Includes an extensive discussion of the basis for reasonable legal fees and expenses and how those issues are handled in common litigation and ethical situations. Also discusses common legal bill review ("audit") issues. Request a free copy of our paper: Here
|
||
Devil's Advocate brings the perspective of experienced trial lawyers to
legal fee analysis and litigation management.
Since The Devil's Advocate was founded in 1993, we have been the pre-eminent national authority on legal fee management. We have also pioneered litigation consulting to monitor lawyer performance as well as cost. Browse our web-site for more information about our services, our experience, and samples of our work. We've included articles by and about us. You'll also find valuable monographs we have prepared, including the Client Bill of Rights, Managing Lawyers and Legal Fees, and our client-friendly Billing Agreement. |
Site keywords: The Devil's Advocate, John Toothman (founder), legal fee management, litigation consulting, trial lawyers, controlling legal costs, controlling litigation costs, controlling legal fees, legal cost control, litigation cost control, legal cost management, legal expense management, trial practice, civil litigation, civil discovery, American Rule, client, lawyer, legal fees, attorney fees, lawyers fees, retention, hiring lawyers, attorneys, expert witness, expert testimony, legal bills, legal bill, lawyer bill, attorney fee, attorney bill, lawyers' bills, legal fee invoices, litigation management, attorneys' bills, fee petitions, bankruptcy, audit, Litigation Foundation, review, civil rights, discrimination, Title VII, insurance companies, fee shifting, prevailing party, legal expenses, cost-effective, second opinions, monitoring counsel, quality, legal fee budgets, legal fee estimates, reconciling legal fee budgets to legal bills, performance, legal fee audits, litigation fee audits, audit legal bills, legal bill audits, legal bill reviews, law firms, accounting, accountants, general counsel, second opinions, Trial Practice Checklists (West Group); Legal Fees: Law and Management (Carolina Academic Press), Trial Practice Checklists, independent counsel, alternative fees, client bill of rights, chief financial officer, legal fee reduction, John Toothman, reinsurance, hourly fees. Headquarters in Great Falls, Northern Virginia, USA, in the Metropolitan Washington DC (District of Columbia) area.