tests/expected/synthetic-brightflag-run/spend_review_findings.csv

category,item,severity,driver,recommendation
Staffing Mix,Whitfield Bosch — LIT-7784 discovery response,high,"Partners performed 103 of 141 professional hours (73.0%), including first-pass responsiveness and privilege review. The descriptions support a leverage issue, although complexity should be confirmed with the firm.",Request a phase-level explanation and require associate/paralegal-led first-pass review with partner escalation criteria for the remaining discovery work.
Staffing Mix,Dunmore Ellery Pratt — RE-4127 lease renewal,high,"Partner time was 20 of 34 professional hours (58.8%) on a routine lease renewal, including drafting that could plausibly have been delegated.",Set a matter-specific staffing plan for future renewals and require associate-led drafting with partner review and negotiation.
Staffing Mix,Whitfield Bosch — MA-9042 acquisition diligence,low,"The same firm used only 18 partner hours out of 182 professional hours (9.9%) and finished below budget, indicating the litigation issue is not firm-wide.",Use this staffing pyramid as the positive baseline when discussing LIT-7784 with the firm.
Budget Variance,Whitfield Bosch — LIT-7784 discovery response,high,"Adjusted spend was $145,950.00 against a $110,000.00 budget, a 32.7% overrun even after a $5,000 courtesy credit. Partner-heavy review is the clearest supported driver.","Intervene before additional discovery work: confirm scope changes, agree a remaining-phase cap, and approve a staffing matrix."
Budget Variance,Dunmore Ellery Pratt — RE-4127 lease renewal,high,"Adjusted spend was $27,975.00 against a $22,000.00 budget, a 27.2% overrun. The partner-heavy staffing mix is the likely driver rather than an across-the-board rate increase.",Review the invoice narrative with the firm and establish a capped or fixed-fee approach for repeat lease renewals.
Budget Variance,Merrow Kline — VHC-2401 cyber response,medium,"Adjusted spend was $89,280.00, 5.0% above budget. The export shows both strategy work and substantial first-pass review, so the split between necessary urgency and delegation should be confirmed.",Close out the matter with a task-level review and create a phase budget for future breach-response engagements.
Allocation,Whitfield Bosch portfolio allocation,medium,"Whitfield Bosch is $31,550 over budget across two matters, but its M&A matter is $4,400 under budget with a conventional staffing pyramid; the loss is concentrated in discovery staffing.",Keep M&A allocation intact while addressing discovery-phase staffing and controls rather than treating this as a relationship-wide failure.
Allocation,Reyes Chen Kaplan — COM-5520 contract remediation,low,"Associate/paralegal-led delivery held partner share to 4.8% and finished $2,976.25 below budget after the portfolio discount.","Use this matter as the benchmark for repeatable, playbook-driven commercial contract work."