A law firm has lost its bid to recover Sh56.3 million in legal fees from Dutch brewer Heineken after the High Court upheld the dismissal of its advocate-client bill of costs.
The court found that LJA Associates LLP and Heineken had operated under an agreed work-in-progress (WIP) billing arrangement, making the advocate-client bill of costs ineligible for taxation.
LJA Associates previously represented the Heineken Group in its long-running legal battle with businessman Ngugi Kiuna’s Maxam Ltd over the termination of East African distributorship agreements in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.
It was not immediately clear from the court record whether the Sh56.3 million in legal fees arose from that litigation.
In rejecting LJA Associates’ attempt to overturn an earlier decision by the taxing master dismissing the firm’s bill of costs, the court found no basis for interfering with the taxing master’s findings on the merits.
“The evidence demonstrates that both parties understood, accepted, and operated under a WIP-based (work-in-progress) fee arrangement. The respondent repeatedly sought estimates, the applicant furnished them, invoices were raised pursuant to those estimates, and payment followed. Such conduct is wholly inconsistent with the absence of an agreement regarding remuneration,” the court said.
LJA Associates argued that no valid fee agreement existed because Section 45 of the Advocates Act requires such agreements to be in writing and signed by the client.
The firm maintained that the work-in-progress estimates and email correspondence merely reflected projected costs and could not replace taxation.
It also argued that the taxing master had wrongly treated correspondence and billing updates as a binding agreement governing remuneration. The law firm said the decision deprived it of legal fees for services rendered in protecting Heineken’s interests.
Heineken opposed the application, arguing that it had settled every invoice raised by the advocates and that no money remained outstanding.
