The trustees of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, yesterday dismissed reports that they had been overcharged by their legal advisers, the London firm of solicitors, Mishcon de Reya, who have billed £500,000 sterling for 11 weeks work.
The firm, whose senior litigation partner, Mr Anthony Julius, is the unpaid chairman of the trustees, also defended its charges, claiming that they had been discounted at 20 per cent.
In a statement, the trustees said they were "very satisfied" with the work done by Mishcon de Reya and that the fees were, "if anything, on the low side".
Mr Julius rejected suggestions that he had a conflict of interest. He said he always left the room when the firm's invoices came up on the agenda.
The reports suggested that some of the four other partners working on the fund charged up to £250 an hour. But legal sources yesterday that senior partners in big London firms routinely charge that amount with assistant solicitors earning around £90 an hour.
Mishcon de Reya is a middlesized firm, rated 70th in the annual top 100 league table published by the monthly magazine, Commercial Lawyer.
One of the trustees, the writer and broadcaster, Vivienne Parry, said: "The financial benefits from the commercial projects being established by Mishcon de Reya will massively outweigh the costs of setting them up.
"Of course we will keep an eye on the fees, but we can't do something as big and complex as the memorial fund without the best legal advice," she said.
Confirming the £500,000 figure, the firm said in its statement that the money was for the cost of legal transactions and that the 20 per cent discount was equivalent to its normal profit margin. A further 15 assistants were working on the fund's affairs, assessing more than 1,500 projects and helping to establish intellectual property rights on the late princess's name and image around the world.
The fund has so far raised about £35 million, much of it from sales of Elton John's Candle in the Wind which has become the biggest selling single of all time. With the memorial CD both could raise up to £100 million.