Monday, May 21, 2012
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Moscaret Consulting, Inc. specializes in attorney fee disputes. We are retained as a consultant, expert witness, and/or party-appointed fee arbitrator by clients, law firms, and third-party payers involved in fee disputes. We review legal bills for reasonableness and analyze whether attorney billing practices are fair and proper. Our expert rate is $595/hour. Also, fixed fees available.
Our principal, Kenneth Moscaret, Esq. (admitted to practice California, 1980), is one of the top experts in his field. According to the National Association of Legal Fee Analysis (NALFA) in Chicago, "Mr. Moscaret is widely regarded as one of the nation's leading authorities on attorney fees."
We have trained many JAMS judges, and a number of American Arbitration Association (AAA) neutrals. Click here to view a testimonial letter we received from JAMS.
We are often retained by major law firms and corporate policyholders in large, complex litigation, including by some of the largest law firms and best-known attorneys in California and the U.S. (view here). View some favorable trial results here.
Ken Moscaret gave attorney fee expert testimony in 2008 in the huge Enron securities class action litigation in federal court in Houston. Lead plaintiff's counsel submitted a $700 million attorney fee request in that case. Ken Moscaret was the sole "lodestar" reasonable fee expert testifying in the Enron case about reasonable hourly rates and hours billed. Mr. Moscaret testified alongside several nationally-prominent law professors and retired federal circuit judges who were co-experts with him, including law professors from Columbia University Law School and Harvard Law School, and retired 3rd U.S. Circuit judge H. Lee Sarokin. Enron is the largest securities class action lawsuit in U.S. history, and one of the largest business lawsuits generally ever litigated in this country.
The U.S. District Court in Enron relied heavily and favorably on Mr. Moscaret's expert opinions in making its record-setting $700 million fee award (view here). The federal judge in Enron described Ken Moscaret as one of the "nationally prominent experts on fee awards" who was "highly qualified to testify about attorneys' fees and market rates." The court's published opinion was 209-pages long (view here).
Ken Moscaret was retained in 2007 by the largest law firm in Los Angeles (and in California) to testify in support of $10 million of its legal billings for defending a corporate policyholder-client in a major, complex lawsuit in federal court in California. Mr. Moscaret was also retained in 2009 as a fee expert by the #1-ranked law firm (2008 – 2010) on The American Lawyer's "A-List" of the most elite law firms in the U.S.
Mr. Moscaret regularly testifies in major insurance recovery actions regarding the reasonableness of multimillion-dollar defense fees incurred in large, complex underlying litigation. Examples include environmental contamination/toxic tort, asbestos, and securities fraud cases. Click here to read NALFA News Blog story.
Mr. Moscaret has been involved in more than 200 large attorney fee disputes since 1991 involving over $1.5 billion in legal fees. He has testified as an expert witness in court, arbitration, and deposition, and supports his expert opinions by citation to a large body of case law on fee and billing issues.
Ken Moscaret created a first-of-its-kind legal blog called myLawCoach designed to help consumer clients manage all the business aspects of their attorney-client relationships. Mr. Moscaret's blog delivers practical tips and advice to the types of individuals who serve as jurors in court.
Moscaret Consulting Group, a closely-related firm, provides a litigation management consulting program for midsize companies and public entities that are litigating difficult, expensive lawsuits in U.S. federal and state courts. In those engagements, we work closely and constructively with a client's outside counsel to help achieve increased litigation management efficiency and more predictable legal budgeting in the lawsuit. We also educate the client about the various cost components of their lawsuit. Our program helps lessen the chances of a client ending up in a fee dispute with their outside counsel at the end of the lawsuit.
With his diversified background, Ken Moscaret has also been involved in business ventures outside law. Mr. Moscaret has been responsible for hiring and paying outside counsel in those business ventures. This gives Mr. Moscaret a broader, more balanced, more "real-world" perspective on legal fees and attorney billing practices.
Mr. Moscaret is also the co-founder and current president of Athletes For Kids, a non-profit organization which promotes greater tolerance, acceptance, and inclusion of people with disabilities. Athletes For Kids trains high school athletes (male and female, from all major sports) to act as mentors to younger children with disabilities to help teach those youngsters greater self-esteem and life skills. Athletes For Kids was selected as a nominee for the 2010 Western Washington Diversity and Inclusion Award. Other nominees for this prestigious community award included Microsoft, Alaska Airlines, Starbucks, and Key Bank.
We have offices in Seattle, Washington and Pasadena, California. Clients are not charged for travel time and expenses commuting between our two offices or anywhere else in California. To receive more information about our services, please click on the Email link below or call us.