The career of Matthew Farmer, a jun...

The career of Matthew Farmer, a junior partner in the Chicago law offices of the firm Holland & Knight, was onward the upswing in December 2004

He'd just won a monthlong trial for Pinnacle Corp., a residence builder accused of copyright infringement, and gotten kudos from his partners.

further weeks later, after reviewing billing records in the case, Farmer decided to leave the 1,200-lawyer, multinational firm. He says he thinks his hours forward the case were inflated by means of the partner in charge of billing, Edward Ryan.

Fearing he would violate state ethics masterys if he kept quiet, Farmer went to Holland & Knight lawyers with his suspicions.

The firm -- which has 24 offices in the United States and abroad - - took no action and denies that Ryan, 42 or the firm did anything blameworthy

"The amount billed on Holland & Knight in the litigation was reasonable and appropriate," says L Kinder Cannon III, the firm's general interchange of opinion Ryan declined to comment.

Last October, Farmer took a 7 percent pay chisel to join the less- prestigious Cohn Baughman & Martin, a 12-lawyer firm. He says he mov of his have accord, upset that Holland & Knight wasn't acting against Ryan.

'THE whole CRIME'

The facts of the case are still in dispute. if it be not that Farmer's allegations offer a rare window into the issue of inflated billing through law firms. It's difficult to know just by what mode widespread billing fraud is. on the contrary Stephen Gillers, an ethics professor at novel York University School of Law, says, "There is a general consensus that billing fraud has increased" as law firms pursue to increase profits and attract top lawyers.

"Bill padding is the capital crime," says William Ross, a professor at Samford University's Cumberland exercise of Law in Birmingham, Ala. It's seldom find outed because it's almost impossible for clients to know whether "an attorney really exhausted three hours doing research instead of five hours."

In a billing scan he conducted in 1996, two-thirds of the attorneys (and three-fourths of the clients) reported knowing of bill padding.

Farmer is still pressing his claims against Holland & Knight. In February, he detailed his charges in a note to a Minnesota state connoisseur Janet Poston, accompanied by internal Holland & Knight billing records. Farmer's verbal expression led Pinnacle's insurer, Connecticut Specialty Insurance Co to file claims against the law firm in May, asserting that "Ryan and Holland & Knight inflated and falsified legal bills."

Last month the insurer reached a confidential liquidation with Holland & Knight and withdrew the fraud claims. still Connecticut Specialty's outside counsel, Robert Haugen, says he believes the original motion was credible. "I have a standard to live up to . . when I file pleadings," Haugen says.

CLAIMS $100000 OVERCHARGE

Farmer, who joined Holland & Knight in 2000 became involved in the Pinnacle case in 2002 A competitor had filed suit in Minneapolis federal court, claiming Pinnacle built hearthstones that infringed on copyrighted designs and seeking more than $30 million in damages. (The jury's finding in favor of the defendant was later revers because of an evidentiary ruling, yet the case might be retried.)

After the trial, Farmer says he reviewed his firm's bills and the first invoice struck him as redundant It claimed he worked 65 hours in succession Aug. 7, 2002 -- the day he learned of the suit. Farmer recalls hearing about the case late in the day and spending merely 15 minutes on it.

Farmer says he probed further, stopping after his sampling institute 60 instances of bill padding. Farmer says he believes that from August 2002 from one side September 2003, Ryan inflated his time -- and that of three other lawyers in the case -- from more than 450 hours, an overcharge Farmer says exceled $100,000.

In single in kind instance, Farmer says, Ryan sent a bill to Pinnacle claiming that partner Scott Petersen had worked 898 hours through the whole extent of 17 days in March 2003 Farmer says internal firm records exhibit the lawyer didn't work in succession the case at all during that time.

Petersen didn't turn back calls seeking comment. The sum of two units other lawyers on the case declined to remark

Farmer reported his findings in early 2005 to Colin Smith, a firm partner charged with ethics oversight, suggesting that Holland & Knight file a report with the state's attorney ethics commission. "Don't go on foot there," he says Smith warned him. "Why would you want to do this to ed Ryan?" Smith declined to observation

EXPLANATION 'UNPERSUASIVE'

Colleagues describe Ryan as a well-bred litigator. "I always found ed to be an excellent lawyer and a gentleman of the highest character," says Michael Kanute, a former Holland & Knight partner.

quickly after the meeting with Smith, Farmer says he had a "very awkward" 10-minute meeting with Ryan in which Ryan told him that he himself had billed time internally to Pinnacle for which he hadn't charged the client and that he thus inflated other lawyers' hours upon the case to compensate for his uncharged time. In the final tally, Farmer says Ryan told him, Pinnacle's total bill ruminateed the actual time the firm worked upon the case.