“She got tripped up by inflating both her hourly rate and the hours worked on a case. “
That’s absolutely normal. I knew an attorney with big corporate clients who would add up his monthly bills and divide by the number of clients. They’d each get a bill that was more creative writing than Michael Crichton. One of Al Gore’s attorneys in his election fight billed more hours than existed from the point he was hired until Gore lost.
She must have done something else to annoy the court as overbilling is well within the accepted norm.
Padding hours is one thing. Leaving a paper trail is something else. And quoting $200 an hour and then asking the court to award $500 an hour is over the top even by legal standards.
And finally, there are two sets of ethics application - on set for the solos and small firms, another set for the megafirms.