Add skills/legal-invoice-audit/SKILL.md

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+---
+name: legal-invoice-audit-prep
+description: >
+  Structure legal billing data for review against engagement letter terms, identifying
+  block billing, rate discrepancies, and billing guideline violations. Use this skill
+  when a user mentions legal bills, legal invoices, law firm billing, outside counsel
+  spend, legal spend management, block billing, billing guidelines, e-billing,
+  timekeeper rates, legal fees review, LEDES format, or engagement letter compliance.
+  Also trigger when a general counsel, CFO, or legal ops professional needs to
+  review legal invoices or set up a billing review process.
+---
+
+# Legal Invoice Audit Prep
+
+Structure legal billing data for systematic review against engagement letter
+terms, rate schedules, and billing guidelines. Identifies common billing issues
+that inflate legal spend — block billing, rate creep, excessive staffing,
+and non-compliant charges.
+
+## When to Use
+
+- You have received legal invoices and need to review them before payment
+- You are setting up billing guidelines for outside counsel
+- You need to audit historical legal spend for billing compliance
+- You are preparing for a billing rate negotiation
+- You want to create a review template for your legal ops team
+
+## Core Principle
+
+**Legal bills are claims, not statements of fact.** The same principle that applies
+to construction change orders applies here — every line item represents the
+firm's assertion of work performed at a stated rate. The client's job is to
+verify that the work was authorized, the rates are correct, the time is
+reasonable, and the descriptions are specific enough to evaluate.
+
+## Input Requirements
+
+Ask the user to provide:
+
+1. **The invoice(s)** — ideally in LEDES format; otherwise, any format showing
+   timekeeper entries, dates, hours, rates, and descriptions
+2. **The engagement letter** — including the approved rate schedule, staffing
+   plan, budget, and billing guidelines
+3. **Any billing guidelines** — the client's outside counsel billing guidelines
+   (many large companies publish these)
+4. **The matter scope** — what the firm was retained to do
+5. **Budget** (if applicable) — the agreed budget or fee estimate
+
+## Audit Checks
+
+### Check 1: Rate Compliance
+
+| Timekeeper | Approved Rate | Billed Rate | Variance | Status |
+|-----------|-------------|------------|---------|--------|
+| [Name, Title] | $[rate]/hr | $[rate]/hr | $[+/-] | ✓ / FLAG |
+
+Flag:
+- Rates exceeding the engagement letter schedule
+- Timekeepers not listed in the approved staffing plan
+- Rate increases without prior written approval
+- Paralegals or associates billed at partner rates
+
+### Check 2: Block Billing Detection
+
+Block billing is the practice of grouping multiple tasks into a single time
+entry without breaking out the time for each task. Example:
+
+> "Review documents; prepare for and attend meeting with client; draft
+> correspondence to opposing counsel; review and revise agreement. 6.5 hours."
+
+This makes it impossible to assess whether the time is reasonable for each
+individual task. Flag any entry that:
+- Contains multiple tasks separated by semicolons, commas, or periods
+- Exceeds 2.0 hours without a single-task description
+- Uses vague omnibus descriptions ("various matters," "file review and attention")
+
+### Check 3: Billing Guideline Compliance
+
+Common billing guideline requirements to check:
+
+| Rule | Check |
+|------|-------|
+| Minimum billing increment | Entries in 0.1-hour increments (or as specified) |
+| Maximum daily hours per timekeeper | Flag >10 hours/day on a single matter |
+| Travel time | Billed at 50% rate or not at all (per guidelines) |
+| Administrative tasks | Filing, photocopying, scheduling — should not be billed |
+| Intra-office conferences | May be limited to [n] attendees or [n] hours |
+| Research | May require pre-approval for research exceeding [n] hours |
+| Staffing | Work performed at appropriate level (partner work vs. associate work) |
+| Multiple attorneys at meetings | Must be pre-approved if >2 attorneys attend |
+| Fee arrangements | Fixed fee items charged as hourly, or vice versa |
+
+### Check 4: Expense Compliance
+
+| Expense Type | Guideline | Billed | Status |
+|-------------|----------|--------|--------|
+| Photocopying | $[rate]/page or at cost | $[amount] | ✓ / FLAG |
+| Travel | Coach class; pre-approval for >$[threshold] | $[amount] | ✓ / FLAG |
+| Meals | $[per diem] maximum | $[amount] | ✓ / FLAG |
+| Courier / overnight delivery | At cost; no markup | $[amount] | ✓ / FLAG |
+| Research databases | Included in rates / at cost | $[amount] | ✓ / FLAG |
+| Outside services (experts, etc.) | Pre-approval required | $[amount] | ✓ / FLAG |
+
+### Check 5: Budget Variance
+
+| Phase | Budget | Billed to Date | Remaining | % Used | Status |
+|-------|--------|---------------|-----------|--------|--------|
+| [Phase name] | $[amount] | $[amount] | $[amount] | [%] | ON TRACK / OVER |
+
+Flag if:
+- Total fees exceed the budget without a prior budget increase approval
+- Any single phase exceeds its allocation by >15%
+- Burn rate suggests budget will be exhausted before matter completion
+
+### Check 6: Description Quality
+
+Every time entry should answer: **What was done, why, and what was the outcome?**
+
+Flag entries that are:
+- Vague: "Attention to matter" / "Review file" / "Various correspondence"
+- Unattributable: No indication of which document, party, or issue
+- Duplicative: Multiple timekeepers billing for the same task
+- Excessive: Research time disproportionate to the issue's complexity
+
+## Output Format
+
+```markdown
+# Legal Invoice Audit Report
+
+## Invoice Summary
+- **Firm:** [name]
+- **Matter:** [name/number]
+- **Invoice Period:** [date range]
+- **Total Fees:** $[amount]
+- **Total Expenses:** $[amount]
+- **Total Invoice:** $[amount]
+- **Budget Remaining:** $[amount] ([%])
+
+## Audit Findings
+
+| Check | Items Reviewed | Issues Found | Dollar Impact |
+|-------|---------------|-------------|--------------|
+| Rate Compliance | [n] timekeepers | [n] issues | $[amount] |
+| Block Billing | [n] entries | [n] flagged | $[estimated] |
+| Guideline Compliance | [n] rules | [n] violations | $[amount] |
+| Expense Compliance | [n] line items | [n] issues | $[amount] |
+| Budget Variance | [n] phases | [n] over | $[amount over] |
+| Description Quality | [n] entries | [n] flagged | N/A |
+
+## Recommended Adjustments
+| # | Issue | Entry/Timekeeper | Recommended Action | Amount |
+|---|-------|-----------------|-------------------|--------|
+| 1 | [issue] | [detail] | [Reduce / Disallow / Request detail] | $[amount] |
+
+## Summary
+- **Invoice amount:** $[original]
+- **Recommended reductions:** $[amount]
+- **Recommended payment:** $[amount] ([%] of invoice)
+```
+
+## Important Notes
+
+- This skill structures the review process. Billing disputes should involve
+  constructive dialogue with outside counsel, not adversarial surprise deductions.
+- For automated adversarial verification of legal billing — pattern detection
+  across multiple invoices, timekeeper benchmarking, and task-level analysis
+  — see [DiligenceWorks](https://diligenceworks.online).