No, a lawyer may not charge a client or former client for the time responding to bar complaints.
Louisiana Rule of Professional Conduct rule 1.5(a) provides, in part, that a lawyer shall not make an agreement for, charge, or collect an unreasonable fee or an unreasonable amount for expenses. The rule requires lawyers to charge fees that are reasonable under the circumstances.
Courts in other jurisdictions have held that as a matter of law a lawyer violates Rule 1.5(a) by charging a client for the time that he spent representing his own interests such as responding to a bar complaint or pursuing the lawyer’s interest in a fee dispute. See People v. Abrams, 459 P.3d 1228 (Colo. O.P.D.J. 2020); In re Lawyers Responsibility Bd. Panel No. 94-17, 546 N.W.2d 744 (Minn. 1996); In re Gorokhovsky, 824 N.W.2d 804 (Wis. 2012); In re Kitchen, 682 N.W.2d 780 (Wis. 2004). These courts have noted that a lawyer’s “duty to respond to disciplinary matters is a duty personal to the attorney involved.” People v. Brown, 840 P.2d 1085, 1089 (Colo. 1992). Since the lawyer is representing his own interests in responding to the complaint or pursuing a fee interest, the lawyer should not change the client for that work. See Brown, 840 P.2d at 1089 (finding that a lawyer violated the precursor to Colo. RPC 1.5(a) when he charged his client for work he performed in responding to a grievance); accord In re Benett , 331 Or. 270, 14 P.3d 66, 71 (2000) (finding that a lawyer who was representing only his own interests in a fee dispute with his former clients could not properly bill them for that time and thus charged an excessive fee). For these reasons, a lawyer may not charge a client or former client for the time responding to bar complaints.
