If I were queen at megafirm DLA Piper, I’m not sure I would
boast about a film about fraudulent conduct made in-house on my home page,
especially if it were titled At What
Cost? But I don’t work at DLA Piper, let alone run the place, so I can’t
really account for the firm’s tin ear here. Pundits are already wondering why
the firm would ever pursue $700 grand in unpaid legal bills from a bankrupt
client when there were damning emails in its own ether stating—explicitly—that
the firm was in “standard ‘churn that bill,’ baby!” mode.
Observers can’t help but be curious about why
the firm would move forward in that pursuit even after the firm had been
disqualified from representing the corporate client in its bankruptcy action thanks
to a conflict of interest. That the firm would think that now’s a super-great
time to mention that it won an award for making a training video about
corruption involving management called At
What Cost? is just beyond the beyond.
But let’s not pile on DLA Piper’s very bad week. A few good
things about what is no doubt a basically very capable firm have emerged from
the mess:
- Maybe no one really noticed that bit about the firm
churning bills since it’s spring break/Easter week/Passover.
- The oft-boasted-about “firm collegiality” actually seems to exist at DLA Piper as evidenced by the string of emails from various lawyers supporting the churning guy (Hence, “Yeah Team Tim!”) and email rounds planning an outing after the firm ‘withdrew’ because of its conflict of interest (“Well,the Judge just fired us . . . . Drinks anyone?”).
- The training video looks like it might be pretty good. The teaser is on Youtube. Take a look! You might even leave a comment. Maybe DLA Piper will just dismiss it as another “inexcusable effort at humor.”
Even if DLA Piper recovers its fees, ya just gotta wonder, at what cost?
—Lori Tripoli
No comments:
Post a Comment