A recent BLT Blog post, “Treasury Watchdog Questions Venable’s Billing, Including ‘Vague and Inadequate’ Work Descriptions” reports that a new audit report on the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is knocking the legal billing practices of the Venable law firm, and is questioning about two-thirds of the firm’s legal fees the auditors reviewed.  The report says Venable lawyers and timekeepers often failed to describe their contract work for the government program adequately.

The report does not argue that the fees paid to Venable were necessarily improper because, the auditors write, many descriptions were too vague to make a determination.  The report comes from the acting special inspector general of TARP, an office nicknamed “Sigtarp” and headed on an acting basis by former Securities and Exchange Commission counsel Christy Romero.  According to the report, the Treasury office in question has already changed the level of detail it requires from contracting law firms as a result of initial audit findings.

In all, the auditors examined invoices totaling just over $1 million in legal fees, and auditors questioned $677,000 worth of fees.  As of Dec. 31, five law firms, including Venable, had been paid $27 million in fees.

CLICK HERE (pdf) for a copy of the audit report.