Appeal
from the District Court of Campbell County The Honorable
Michael N. Deegan, Judge
Representing Appellant:Jamie M. Woolsey of Fuller, Sandefer
& Associates, L.L.C., Casper, Wyoming
Representing Appellee Scott P. Klosterman of Williams,
Porter, Day & Neville, P.C., Casper, Wyoming
Before
BURKE, C.J., and HILL [*] , DAVIS, FOX, and KAUTZ, JJ.
DAVIS,
Justice.
[¶1]
Petitioner Gabrielle Manigault seeks review of a decision in
favor of her former attorneys, Daly & Sorenson, LLC, by a
panel of the Wyoming State Bar Committee for Resolution of
Fee Disputes. That decision was affirmed by the district
court, and we in turn affirm that decision.
ISSUES
[¶2]
Manigault raises two issues that may be succinctly restated
as follows:
1. Did the panel err in concluding it was neither
unreasonable nor abusive for Daly & Sorenson to bill its
time using minimum increments of fifteen minutes?
2. Did the panel err in concluding the law firm exercised
billing judgment and did not excessively bill Manigault for
communication between firm members and employees about her
case?
FACTS
[¶3]
For more than sixteen years, Manigault retained Daly &
Sorenson to represent her in ninety-seven separate legal
matters ranging from land and oil and gas transactions to
ranching, domestic relations, and criminal matters. She
typically paid her bills and any accrued interest when
proceeds from her oil and gas interests and cattle sales
became available.
[¶4]
In late 2012, she retained the firm with respect to one of
the matters that gave birth to the present case.
Manigault's mother sued her to collect on two separate
promissory notes on which she owed nearly three million
dollars, and to collect accumulated interest, late fees, and
attorney fees.
[¶5]
The case ultimately settled when Manigault agreed to confess
judgment in favor of her mother (notwithstanding her initial
position that the money received from her mother was a gift),
and in exchange her mother agreed to forgive the entire debt
and write off the loss on her taxes. Manigault paid the law
firm roughly thirty percent of what it billed in that case,
leaving an unpaid balance of approximately $13, 116.33.
[¶6]
Earlier in 2012, she retained Daly & Sorenson for what
the parties call "the trust litigation." It
involved the large estate of Manigault's father and its
complex distribution through numerous family trusts and
family partnerships and his will. Although she and her son
were beneficiaries of those trusts, they were controlled by
her stepmother, brother, and several attorneys and financial
planners. Moreover, they were created and situated in several
states and involved far-flung assets worth hundreds of
millions of dollars. The trusts' corpora included stock
in publishing companies, holdings in various media outlets,
plantations and historic pre-revolution homes in South
Carolina, and ranchlands in Wyoming and Montana.
[¶7]
The litigation in the trust case primarily involved a trust
created in North Carolina and the District of Columbia, which
included property in North Carolina and a ranch in Sheridan
County, Wyoming. Manigault entered the Sheridan County
property to investigate whether the asset was being subjected
to waste at the hands of the trustee. The trustee then
accused her of trespass and interference with trust
operations, and sought to limit her access to any trust
property. The ensuing litigation raised issues regarding
waste or embezzlement of trust assets, the current location
and value of those assets, proper funding of the ...