A Manhattan lawyer has been publicly censured for adding 94.8 hours of fabricated billing to his law firm's internal records, in an effort to look busy to his partners, even though he removed the false entries before the bills went out to clients.

A unanimous Appellate Division, First Department, panel censured lawyer Jeffrey Leighton, while noting that the Attorney Grievance Committee and Leighton had stipulated to the punishment, even though there is apparently no precedent for a censure when the clients aren't cheated.

The panel also noted, under mitigating factors weighing against a harsher punishment, that Leighton, a 34-year veteran lawyer, had lost his partnership at his firm because he'd padded the bills.

“The [First Department Attorney Grievance] Committee found no precedent for any public censure for falsifying time records where clients were not harmed,” the panel wrote, adding, “Disciplinary cases involving false or over-billing that have resulted in public discipline involved more egregious conduct in which the clients were directly impacted by the misconduct.”

However, the panel also pointed out that “the Committee and [Leighton] agree that public censure is appropriate because he engaged in this conduct for a period of over two years, he is a senior attorney with extensive experience, and although he did not intend to financially benefit or over-bill his clients, he intended to and did 'deceive his colleagues and his firm about how busy he was.'”

According to Lawyers.com, Leighton had been a member of Will Auslander, a law firm with offices in both Manhattan and Geneva, Switzerland.

Leighton was admitted in the Second Judicial Department in 1983, according to the panel, which consisted of Justices David Friedman, Marcy Kahn, Ellen Gesmer, Cynthia Kern and Peter Moulton. He had an office in the First Judicial Department at all relevant times, and the committee and Leighton stipulated that between March 2012 and September 2013 he'd engaged in a pattern of making fake internal firm billing entries, the panel wrote in the Jan. 4 decision.

In mitigation of the punishment, the panel pointed out in Matter of Jeffrey Leighton, 2018 NY Slip Op 00089, that Leighton had never previously been the subject of a disciplinary investigation, that he cooperated with the committee, and that he'd “expressed genuine remorse and embarrassment.”

Leighton was represented by Richard Maltz, counsel at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz. Maltz couldn't be reached for comment.

Remi Shea was of counsel representing the Grievance Committee.