A six-lawyer Brooklyn firm that assigned a law student and junior associate to a client’s case has been barred from collecting its legal fee by a Brooklyn judge who said the firm’s bills were “overly broad, padded, excessive and unreasonable.”

In ordering the firm to return nearly $2,000 to its client, Brooklyn Civil Court Judge Harriet Thompson said, “It is totally inappropriate for a lawyer to learn his or her craft at the total expense of his or her client.”