William G. Ross is a nationally-recognized expert on the
Ethics of Legal Fees. He is the author of two books on attorney billing issues,
The Honest Hour: The Ethics of Time-Based Billing by Attorneys (Carolina Academic Press, 1996) and
Legal Fees: Law and Practice (with John W. Toothman, Carolina Academic Press, 2003), as well as numerous articles.
Professor Ross’s work in this field has been recognized in various publications, including
The Wall Street Journal,
The ABA Journal,
The Washington Post,
The New York Times, and
U. S. News and World Report. He often serves an consultant and expert witness on issues concerning legal fees. He also consults on judicial ethics, a subject on which he has published various scholarly articles.
Areas of Expertise:
Ethics of Attorney Billing and FeesJudicial EthicsEthics of Attorney DisqualificationClass Action Certifications
Prof. William G. Ross
In The Honest Hour, Ross explains how to formulate ethical standards for time-based billing. Tapping a broad range of sources, including judicial opinions, rules of professional conduct, the recent ABA opinion on hourly billing, fee agreements, bar journals, law reviews, personal interviews, and nationwide surveys of hundreds of private practitioners, and an inside counsel that he conducted in 1991 and from 1994 to 1995, Ross shows how members of the business and legal communities view the propriety of various billing practices.
Prof. William G. Ross
Written with an appreciation for both the legal and historical contexts, this comprehensive volume explores how the Hughes Court removed constitutional impediments to the development of the administrative state by relaxing restrictions previously invoked to nullify federal and state economic regulatory legislation. Ross maps the expansion of safeguards for freedoms of speech, press, and religion and the extension of rights of criminal defendants and racial minorities. Ross holds that the Hughes Court's germinal decisions championing the rights of African Americans helped to lay the legal foundations for the civil rights movement.
