Attorney reprimanded for bill-padding

In a Supreme Court decision last week, a Maple Grove attorney was reprimanded and placed on probation for two years for falsifying bills and making "misrepresentations" to attorneys at the law firm at which he worked. On multiple occasions, Randall E. Gottschalk billed clients for time he hadn't spent on their cases, according to a petition by the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility. In another instance, a paralegal said she refused a request by Gottschalk to back date a timesheet, the petition said. In 2011 Gottschalk admitted he had been padding his hours in order to meet the firm's billable hour expectation. He resigned from Cousineau McGuire Chartered, a Minneapolis law firm, the following day.