Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has paid Bird & Bird almost £400,000 to settle a claim brought against him by the firm over unpaid legal fees.

Bird & Bird sued Sir Stelios (pictured) in November last year for around £389,000 of unpaid legal fees run up easyGroup IP Licensing on a brand dispute over the use of the easyJet name.

The suit, brought by Bird & Bird in November 2010, saw the UK top 20 firm claim around £376,000 plus interest of almost £13,000, in addition to court fees and solicitor costs. Sir Stelios instructed Travers, led by litigation partner Andrew King, to challenge the claim.

Sir Stelios claimed the firm's total legal bill was far above what had been estimated to him by the firm, taking umbrage in particular with £90,000 of photocopying expenses. The billionaire businessman said that the final fees for the work were £2.3m compared with an initial estimate of £1m, and that Bird & Bird had failed to inform him in a correct manner of how far above the estimate the fees would end up.

Sir Stelios agreed to settle the bills in a hearing held on 2 March but said in a statement that he would be seeking permission to appeal to a higher court.

The statement, published on Sir Stelios' website – which refers to Bird & Bird's lead partner on the brand dispute, Jane Mutimear, as "the photocopying queen" – says: "A charge of £90,000 for photocopying is simply ludicrous, and this is just a small example. In the circumstances, [easyGroup IP] will be seeking permission to appeal from a higher court.

"I am however worried about the state of justice in the UK, if these masters are so friendly towards lawyers and their legal bills. There are people out there who are being ripped off by their lawyers and do not have the means to take it to the court of appeal like I do."

The easyJet brand dispute concluded last year, with the airline permitted to continue to use the name.

Bird & Bird declined to comment.