Welcome to The Devil's Advocate
Established in 1993, The Devil's Advocate is the leading authority on legal fees. 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 fees, or wishes to analyze litigation issues. (To respect the confidentiality of our clients, we do not advertise names of our many clients, which include a substantial percentage of the Fortune 500, for example.) We have reviewed most of the firms in the annual lists of large law firms published by the legal press, plus hundreds of other firms. And we've been hired by many such firms, too.
We are nationally-recognized for our legal fee management and litigation consulting expertise, including legal bill reviews (or "legal bill audits") and expert testimony. Our engagements include supporting as well as challenging legal bills on behalf of lawyers as well as clients, fee-shifting, and fee petitions (e.g., class actions and bankruptcies). We have examined over $1.5 billion in legal fees from over a thousand law firms, in hundreds of engagements. But we do much more than just review bills, from selecting the right lawyer, negotiating a fair fee agreement, monitoring staff and performance, establishing budgets and estimates, reviewing work product, tactics, and strategy, and resolving fee and other disputes.
Everyone is welcome to browse our site for helpful information. We also have links on this website to other resources, including state bar organizations that are supposed to regulate lawyers.
Link to our site to help others: Devil's Advocate | Legal Fee Management
We wrote the book on legal feesThe authoritative text on legal fees & how to manage them is ... |
Our Free Legal Fees Pamphlet |
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Legal Fees: Law & Managementby John Toothman & Prof. William G. Ross The most influential book about legal fees and managing lawyers.
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Reasonable Legal Fees 2dOur pamphlet on reasonable fees. Originally published for an ABA Litigation conference for lawyers as "To Get Paid, Get Reasonable" Extensive discussion of the general legal basis for reasonable legal fees and expenses and how those issues are handled in common litigation and ethical situations. Also describes common legal bill review ("audit") issues. The second edition is now available for free in "pdf" electronic format.
Use this link to e-mail us your request:
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Two Books for Clients & Lawyers from The Civilian's Guide to Lawyers |
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The Civilian's Guide to Lawyers™:
Amazon Kindle Edition
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The Client's Bill of Rights: Based on our original Client Bill of Rights™. Includes the ten rights all clients have and all lawyers should respect. ($2.99; 7,700 words) |
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Our Legal Fee Management & Litigation Consulting ServicesDevil's Advocate brings the perspective of experienced trial lawyers to legal fee analysis and litigation management. Our services include:-legal fee examinations, including legal bill reviews and 'audits,'-expert testimony, including legal fee billing disputes, fee-shifting, ethics, and malpractice,-court-appointed fee examiner, special master, fee expert,-legal billing and fee management software effectiveness audits,-independent litigation consulting,-second opinions on litigation options,-case post-mortems, both for legal malpractice claims or lawyer management,-real-time litigation monitoring,-law firm evaluation, selection, and auditions,-law firm billing agreements,-hourly rate studies & analysis,-legal billing software evaluation & verification,-alternative legal fees (design, testing & analysis for clients and firms),-litigation strategy and tactics audits,-case risk and expense evaluation, including analysis for third-parties like analysts, investors, and competitors,-legal fee budgets and estimates,-fee dispute mediation and arbitration (consulting for a party or acting as the mediator or arbitrator), and litigation and legal fee management training.Devil's Advocate and its unique services have been featured in stories by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bottomline, CBS Radio's Marketplace, Inc. Magazine, The Business News Network, Entrepreneur magazine, The New Jersey Law Journal, New York Post, New York Law Journal, Legal Times, Nation's Business, American Lawyer, California Lawyer, Miami Herald, Virginia Business Magazine, Of Counsel, D&B Report, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and many more publications.For clients without in-house legal counsel, we provide our Independent Counsel service to fill the legal management gap at a reasonable cost.We strive to provide cost-effective services while promoting an equitable lawyer-client relationship.We are independent. We do not prejudge any legal bill or law firm. We are not owned by nor are we affiliated with any other entity, such as an insurance company or law firm.Our legal fee reviews and audits are based on legal, not arbitrary, standards.We track ethical rules and maintain the confidentiality of our work.We use proprietary methods and software to automate and expedite review, but we dig deep with a line-by-line analysis.The fees we charge for our services are the most reasonable in the country.Our services are provided nationwide.DA has been registered as a federal contractor through the GSA Central Contractor Registry.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. |
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Presentations:Last update: 01/07/15 Established 1993 Our 22nd Year
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