Attorney Misconduct, Biglaw

After Wedding, Biglaw Associate Drastically Overbills Her Way To A 9-Month Suspension

Little did she know she was throwing her career away along with her bouquet.

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‘Bye-bye, Biglaw career!’

What happens when you’re a second-year Biglaw associate who’s allowed wedding planning to get the best of you? You’re a little short on billable hours and you’re afraid that you’re going to lose your job, so you do what almost any associate in your position would do — you overbill the hell out of some clients and hope to god that the firm doesn’t notice.

Unfortunately for Mary Jaclyn Cook, the firm did notice, and she’s not only a former associate at Faegre Baker Daniels, but she’s been suspended from the practice of law for nine months. Uh-oh…

Last December, Cook got married and honeymooned in a Hawaiian paradise, knowing full well that she was about 368 hours shy of the firm’s annual 1,850-hour expectation. When she returned to the firm’s Colorado outpost, she faced the hellish reality of having to log more than 100 fabricated hours in a fruitless effort to keep her job, as the firm caught on quite quickly to what she’d done.

Here are some additional details from the Am Law Daily:

Mary Cook

Cook’s final December log reflected 21 workdays where she billed more than 12 hours. She did not bill for some of the days she was in Hawaii for her wedding and honeymoon. To make up for that, she billed more than 15 hours a day for a 12-day stretch at the beginning of the month, including back-to-back 18- and 19-hour days.

One red flag that [Denver office leader of the products liability practice, Heather] Perkins, spotted was Cook billing 175 hours for a single client, which was more than the 2014 graduate from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law averaged for all of her clients in a given month.

When she was confronted about the fabricated hours, Cook at first claimed that they were legitimate, but later broke down and admitted to her dramatic overbilling, worth nearly $40,000. Cook was offered the option of resigning from the firm, and the Colorado Attorney Regulation Counsel eventually became involved. She received a nine-month suspension for her misconduct, and said she was “gravely embarrassed” about the entire affair.

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As for Faegre Baker, a spokeswoman said a failure to meet hours wasn’t even considered a basis for dismissal. According to a statement released by the firm, “We communicate regularly with associates on the standards and competencies by which they are evaluated, and offer many resources to help our lawyers build successful careers. The firm also provides numerous outlets for associates who are concerned about their volume of work—high or low—including advisors, supervising partners, group leaders, office leaders and talent professionals.”

Sadly for Mary Cook, being unemployed and unable to practice law isn’t really an optimal way to start a marriage. We hope that she doesn’t hold this against her spouse and remain resentful for the rest of their lives.

After Wedding, an Associate’s Overbilling Leads to a Suspension [Am Law Daily]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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