LOLLAPALOOZA OF ATTORNEY FEE CASE
See if you can guess in advance of what happened when an attorney agreed to the following conditions for his fee for representing a federal employee: (1) he promised her that his work on the petition for review would cost her nothing; (2) if his efforts on the appellant’s behalf were successful, he would apply for an award of attorney fees; (3) he would give the appellant any fees he was awarded up to the amount she already had paid to the other attorneys; (4) the same understanding applied to any services Mr. Burka might provide in connection with any addendum proceeding after the Board ruled on the petition for review; and (5) if any funds for Mr. Burka’s services were left over, they would be donated to charity after consultation with the appellant. (See Rumsey v. DOJ, 2016 MSPB 28 (2016) for a very complex cases that sets a few new rules for determining fees that FLRA and arbitrators might soon be using.)