A recent Law 360 story, “Holland & Knight Faces Overbilling Suit From Ex-Bank CEO”, reports that Republic First Bancorp's former CEO has accused Holland & Knight LLP of padding its bills as the firm looked to charge him some $7 million for what he said was ultimately "ineffective and unsatisfactory" legal work last year in a dispute over his ouster.
Vernon Hill II said in a complaint filed in Pennsylvania state court that Holland & Knight had engaged in "duplicative … and excessive billing" as it represented him in four separate matters against Republic First last year, including a federal lawsuit alleging that the bank improperly misappropriated the business model and brand equity that Hill had developed during his 13-year tenure. And despite assigning multiple partners to work on Hill's matters at high hourly rates, the complaint said that the Holland & Knight team repeatedly failed to deliver the kind of results Hill expected.
"What occurred was an unnecessary and inefficient use of a large number of timekeepers, led by a score of partners, who billed Hill excessively and unreasonably, particularly in light of the results they achieved – or, more often, failed to achieve," Hill said in his complaint in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas. Hill said he formally retained Holland & Knight in March 2022 as he looked to press back on what he said was an "improper corporate coup" by a faction of Republic First board members aimed at ousting him as CEO and board president.
According to court records, Hill was ultimately booted from his position with Republic First in July 2022. As part of his engagement letter with Holland & Knight, Hill said that the firm promised to keep its bills as low as possible by assigning "lawyers having the lowest hourly rates consistent with the skills, time demands, and other factors … involved in each matter."
By the time Hill eventually terminated his relationship with the firm in July 2023, however, he said that Holland & Knight had charged him some $7 million in fees, about $4.1 million of which he had paid. When Holland & Knight sent him a demand letter seeking the remaining $2.8 million, Hill said he refused to pay and instead pointed out what he claimed was "the wasteful, inefficient, and unreasonable nature of H&K's bills and billing practices." Hill said he later offered to try and resolve the fee dispute, but that when Holland & Knight failed to respond, he opted to file the lawsuit in Philadelphia.
In support of his claims, Hill pointed to Holland & Knight's work over the first half of last year to stop the First Republic board faction's efforts to remove him. That work, Hill said, went on to involve 68 different timekeepers, 19 of whom were firm partners who billed at higher rates. "Despite deploying a literal phalanx of timekeepers led by a bloated cadre of 19 partners, H&K failed to stop the … faction from driving Hill from the chairmanship of RFB," Hill said.