Whenever you contact a lawyer working for you, the charge clock starts. They bill in six minute blocks.
If you get a whole bunch of owners just calling the lawyer for a chat, or to tell the lawyer how to do their job, you can see that the bill is going to rack up pretty quickly.
It doesn’t have to be the strata manager thst the lawyer takes instructions from. Any person nominated by the committee or owners can be the lead. In the absence of a nominated person, it’s logical for the strata manager to instruct the lawyers.