A federal judge has rejected Arnold & Porter's more than $200,000 legal fee agreement with the Justice Department after finding the amount is unreasonable, and that Main Justice was not aggressive enough in verifying the rates in a case where the government was caught lying in court.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon of the District of Columbia on Tuesday noted the government did not check the firm's billing records, nor propose a different method for calculating the fee. The case promptly settled after government lawyers admitted to making misrepresentations in court, which Leon said likely factored into why the government went along with the $206,500 fee agreement so easily.