Apple has objected to the fees charged by a Goodwin Procter partner who was in October appointed by a New York court to monitor the company's competition practices.

According to court papers, Goodwin white collar partner Michael Bromwich billed Apple almost $140,000 (£85,000) in the first two weeks of his instruction, which follows a ruling in July that Apple conspired with five publishers to fix e-book prices.

In a stinging critique, Apple said Bromwich's "personal financial interest is for as broad and lengthy an investigation as possible", and that he had refused to propose any sort of budget.

The tech giant also accused Bromwich of "operating in an unfettered and inappropriate manner", "[lacking] any antitrust experience" and extending the scope of the investigation beyond the original mandate.

Apple is urging the court to drop a proposed amendment which would grant Bromwich greater monitoring powers.

"The $1,100 (£671) hourly rate he proposes for himself and the $1,025 (£625) rate for his legal support system are higher than Apple has ever encountered for any task," the company said in the objection filed last week. "He insists on adding a 15% mark-up on top of that."

The "legal support system" consists of Fried Frank antitrust head Bernard Nigro, whose appointment was also backed by the court.

Apple said Bromwich justified the 15% fee uplift because the assignment is being run through his independent consultancy firm the Bromwich Group, rather than Goodwin Procter.

Earlier this year, the Department of Justice (DoJ) described Bromwich's suggested $495 (£302) hourly rate for another project as "expensive", according to Apple.

The objection was filed by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher partner Theodore Boustrous, who is representing Apple alongside Gibson Dunn partners Daniel Swanson and Cynthia Richman and O'Melveny & Myers partners Howard Heiss and Edward Moss.

Bromwich, a Washington DC-based litigation partner and member of Goodwin Procter's white collar defence group, was instructed by the court to monitor Apple's competition policies, procedures and training at Apple's cost.

Independent monitors are regularly appointed by the US courts as part of settlement agreements.

In June 2010, Bromwich was appointed by President Barack Obama to reform the regulation and oversight of offshore drilling in the wake of the Deepwater oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a position he held until the end of 2011.

Bromwich has also led numerous high-profile government and internal investigations, and served as the Inspector General of the DoJ between 1994 and 1999.

The Bromwich Group and Goodwin Procter were unavailable for comment at the time of writing.