Sexy Billable Hours!

So I was sent this, and I laughed, and I wondered to myself, Do I want to bookmark this site generally?

Then I read this:

Lawyer Charged With Billing During Sex

As I think I have mentioned before, surprisingly few jurisdictions actually have rules making it unethical for an attorney to have sex with his or her client.  It is never a good idea (okay, almost never), but often is not technically a violation of ethical rules.

Billing a client for work not actually done, however, is unethical, and combining these activities by billing for time spent actually having sex with the client is definitely frowned upon.  There is no question about that.

The Times Online reported last month that a woman in London had sued her barrister for allegedly billing her for time during which she had reason to know he was not giving her legal advice.  Ms. Anal Sheikh, about whose name I have nothing at all to say, except that this report did not come out on April 1, and also that it seems more likely to be the name of a movie about the incident than the name of a plaintiff, sued her barrister on the grounds that he had billed her inappropriately.  She had hired Marc Beaumont under an arrangement that was based on a fixed fee of 120,000 pounds, but also provided for additional hourly billing in the event of “unforeseen and urgent work.”  I think she concedes that he did engage in unforeseen and urgent work, but presumably argues that it has to be law-related to qualify for additional payment.

…and that convinced me that the answer was ‘yes.’

One thought on “Sexy Billable Hours!”

  1. On 25th June 2009, in the High Court in London, Mr Justice Simon awarded summary judgment in favour of Mr Beaumont, and dismissed all allegations against him. He made a costs order in favour of Mr Beaumont. He made an interim award of costs in the sum of £ 50,000. He decided that several of Miss Sheikh’s applications were “totally without merit.” On 5th May 2009, Miss Sheikh was struck off the roll of solicitors by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. The SDT found that she had been dishonest

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