WIREFRAME — Legal Practice Matter-Bill Verification Dashboard

Six adversarial checks

Rate Flag

Lead partner $1,150/hr vs $950 cap; associate $620 vs $540 (engagement rate card)

−$12,820

Timekeeper Reject

Unlisted 2nd-yr ramp-up 22h + unapproved summer student 14h (OCG 5.1, staffing plan)

−$15,520

Coding Flag

Block-billed entries (OCG 4.2 → 20% cut) + 3rd internal-conference attendee (OCG 4.5)

−$9,480

Scope & Budget Reject

CCB regulatory-inquiry fees outside the Meridian matter scope & budget; no matter work-product

−$18,400

Disbursements Reject

First-class travel, in-house copy markup, research surcharge, 25% vendor markup (OCG 6.3–6.7)

−$18,850

Arithmetic Flag

Line 5 total overstated ($475); agreed 10% fee discount un-applied → see bridge

−$475

Cards reveal in sequence during the demo. Green = pass · Amber = flag (negotiate) · Red = reject. Each amount is traceable to a clause or a number (see audit drawer).

Scope: DiligenceWorks audits this bill against the engagement letter, the client's Outside Counsel Guidelines (OCG v3) and the approved matter budget — confirming fees and disbursements are supported, compliant and arithmetically correct. It does not opine on the quality, necessity or strategy of the legal work, and is not legal advice.

Exception report

Item	Check	Finding	Claimed	Supported	Delta	Source
L1	Rate	Lead partner billed $1,150/hr vs $950 agreed cap × 38.5h	$44,275	$36,575	$7,700	Eng. letter · rate cap
L2	Rate	Associate billed $620/hr vs $540 agreed × 64.0h	$39,680	$34,560	$5,120	Eng. letter · rate cap
L3	Timekeeper	Unlisted 2nd-yr associate — file familiarisation / "get up to speed", 22.0h	$11,880	$0	$11,880	OCG 5.1 · staffing plan
L4	Timekeeper	Unapproved summer student, 14.0h	$3,640	$0	$3,640	OCG 5.1
L1–7	Coding	Block-billed time (multiple tasks, one narrative) — OCG 20% reduction on $31,200	$31,200	$24,960	$6,240	OCG 4.2
L7	Coding	Internal strategy conference billed by 3 timekeepers; OCG allows 2 — 3rd disallowed, 6.0h	$3,240	$0	$3,240	OCG 4.5
L5–6	Scope & Budget	Fees for the Cascade CCB regulatory inquiry — outside the Meridian matter scope/budget	$18,400	$0	$18,400	Matter budget · scope
D-air	Disb.	Air travel billed first class; OCG caps at economy — supported fare $3,100	$9,200	$3,100	$6,100	OCG 6.3 · receipt
D-copy	Disb.	In-house photocopying $0.25/pp × 9,400 — not chargeable (overhead)	$2,350	$0	$2,350	OCG 6.4
D-rsch	Disb.	Westlaw research surcharge; included in the hourly rate, not a disbursement	$4,800	$0	$4,800	OCG 6.5
D-ed	Disb.	E-discovery: vendor invoice $22,400; undisclosed 25% handling markup (cost only)	$28,000	$22,400	$5,600	OCG 6.7 · vendor inv.
L5	Arithmetic	Line 5 total overstated (12.5 × $950 = $11,875)	$12,350	$11,875	$475	recompute
Total disallowed on the documents					$75,545	*then −$14,930 agreed fee discount

Recommended position

$209K

Approve

$23K

Negotiate

$53K

Reject

Bill bridge: Claimed $284,600 → −$75,545 disallowed → $209,055 → −$14,930 agreed 10% fee discount → net payable $194,125 (≈ 32% off the claim).

Export reduction letter (PDF) Export audit trail (PDF) Send to billing / AP (stub) Accept / override flags

Audit drawer (on click): Source = OCG 6.5 — "Online legal research is included in counsel's hourly rates and is not separately chargeable as a disbursement." → the $4,800 Westlaw surcharge is non-billable. Recommendation: reject $4,800. Every flag carries its clause; the partner accepts or overrides each before the reduction letter is issued.

Matter-spend trend — this firm

$612K

re-based across 36 incoming invoices reviewed YTD — realization leakage the firm had no line of sight on before

Bars = $ re-based per month · amber = above-threshold months.

Mockup only — illustrative figures, no live engine. Final figures come from the six-check engine per DESIGN-legal-practice-matter-bill-verification.md.

Invoice WR-INV-2026-Q2 — Whitfield & Roe LLP

Matter-spend trend — this firm