About Us

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About Us

 

NALFA is the flagship organization for experts specializing in attorney fees and legal billing.  We are an independent group not affiliated with the defense or plaintiffs’ bar.  Our fee experts are the pioneers in advancing the attorney fee practice and leaders in shaping the growing body of attorney fee jurisprudence.

           

FAQ’s

 

Why do I need an attorney fee expert?

 

For most “back of the envelope” attorney fee issues, representing attorneys (or their colleagues) can serve as fee experts.  But for large, complex attorney fee matters, a fee expert can provide the comprehensive, sophisticated, and meaningful analysis required to successfully support or challenge attorney fees.  In addition, if the opposing side has retained a fee expert, you don’t his/her expert testimony to go unanswered.

 

 

What type of reports and opinions can your fee experts provide?

 

Our fee experts can provide expert reports and opinions on, among other things:

 

·        Reasonable, Prevailing Hourly Rates

·        Reasonableness of Hours Billed

·        Customary Law Firm Billing Practices

·        Billing Judgment

·        Amount at Stake in the Underlying Case vs. Amount of Legal Fees Spent

·        Novel, Complex, or Unusual Legal Issues in the Underlying Case

·        Successful Results Obtained for the Client

·        Skill, Experience, and Reputation of the Law Firm

·        Efficient Litigation Management Practices

 

 

What kind of successes have your fee experts had?

 

Some of the results include:

 

·        NALFA’s Brand Cooper identified nearly $2 million in unreasonable attorney fees and costs for non-prevailing defendants.  The California court agreed with Cooper’s analysis and cited his expert report and opinion several times in its ruling: “Cooper calculated that 2,798.7 hrs of the total 4,937.6 hours in the case were “block billing”.  That is nearly 57% of the time entries.  The court will apply an across-the-board 15% reduction in requested fees (after other deductions) based on this impediment to the reasonableness review.”

 

·        NALFA’s Ken Moscaret successfully persuaded court that $9 million in fees and costs was reasonable compensation for a major Los Angeles law firm involved in handling a large, complex litigation.  Moscaret successfully argued there was a rational cost-benefit relationship between the economic value at stake in the underlying litigation verses the legal fees expended.