Ex-Client's Overbilling Suit Attaches Seeming Proskauer Internal Memo
A lawsuit brought by Swedish heiress Kristin Lindholm over a stolen Andy Warhol silkscreen has concluded unhappily for both attorney and client.
Lindholm never got the $12 million work of art back, although the dealer who sold it served time for theft. And now she is suing Proskauer Rose, which represented her in a civil case against the buyer, for allegedly overbilling her by some $850,000, reports the Am Law Daily.
In a separate malpractice claim, Lindholm also is contending that the firm mishandled the silkscreen case and seeking another $8 million.
Her litigation follows a Proskauer suit against Lindholm alleging unpaid legal fees, the legal blog reports. Lindholm contends in the suit that the firm estimated her legal fees would be between $300,000 and $350,000; instead, they totaled nearly $1.4 million, she says, even though Proskauer discounted its $2.8 million bill by 50 percent. She says she has already paid over $1 million in legal fees, and seeks an $850,000 refund in the overbilling suit.
The overbilling case could be helped by a handwritten, undated internal note written on firm letterhead that Lindholm’s legal team at Bello Lapine & Cassone appended to her Connecticut state court complaint. In it, a Proskauer associate seemingly writes, after apparently having reviewed Lindholm’s file at some point, that Proskauer billing descriptions “may suggest double billing for same work,” the Am Law Daily reports.
The “rates are quite high,” the note continues, also referencing “overall excessive handling of every item in the case.”
A Proskauer spokesman describes Lindholm’s allegations to the Am Law Daily as “entirely without merit.”
