Four years after a former Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith executive alleged financial mismanagement at the firm to California state authorities, the firm’s leaders were alerted to millions in unreturned client payments that were more than a year old, according to an internal report reviewed by The American Lawyer.
The report, which a practice leader sent to the firm’s management committee in April 2023, identified $5.6 million as duplicate payments and $9.5 million as client retainer funds. Of those amounts, $3.3 million in duplicate payments and $4.4 million in retainers were identified as more than a year old. Another $10.2 million was identified as “unapplied funds” older than one year.
