Category: Business Litigation

Multiple recent decisions from the Eastern District show a widening disagreement among the judges regarding “reasonable” hourly rates for attorneys.  This disagreement is manifesting itself most notably among the judges of the Alexandria Division as they rule on attorney’s fees petitions that involve lawyers from firms based in both Virginia and downtown DC.  Rates acceptable to at least one judge have been rejected by other judges within same division.  The bottom-line for practitioners is that it is not sufficient to be familiar with the general precedent in the Eastern District when applying for attorney’s fees.  Rather, practitioners must know their individual judge’s history and preferences, while carefully crafting the petition for attorney’s fees.

$400,000 Attorney’s Fee Cut by 67%

In Salim v. Dahlberg, 1:15-cv-468 LMB / IDD, 2016 WL 2930943 (E.D. Va. May 18, 2016), Judge Leonie M. Brinkema wrote a 49-page (!) opinion on just the question of recoverable attorney’s fees.  There, she rejected both the Laffey Matrix and the Vienna Metro matrix to determine reasonable hourly attorney rates in Northern Virginia.  In the 49-page opinion, Judge Brinkema goes into great detail to analyze the hourly rates requested by the plaintiff, the billing records submitted by the plaintiff’s counsel, the six supporting affidavits submitted by plaintiff (including many leading local practitioners in Alexandria), and the defendant’s opposition (which included only a single opposing affidavit).  In the end, Judge Brinkema largely sided with the defendant and cut plaintiff’s fees down from $400,000 to a just over $151,000.

In the underlying case, the plaintiff alleged various federal and state civil rights claims against the defendant.  After a favorable jury verdict, the plaintiff petitioned for attorney’s fees under Virginia Code Ann. § 8.01-42.1.  Plaintiff was represented by the firm of Victor M. Glasberg & Associates, and sought hourly rates for the work of two attorneys:  $550/hour for lead counsel with 39 years of experience, and $250/hour for an associate attorney with less than one year of experience.

Plaintiff’s counsel must have expected a fight to recover fees because they submitted six affidavits of leading local lawyers.  While Judge Brinkema noted that these six local lawyers were “well-known and well-respected by the Court,” none of the affidavits swayed the judge.  Instead, it was the defendant’s opposition and single affidavit submitted by Attorney Wayne G. Travell that carried the day.  Judge Brinkema objected that the plaintiff’s six affidavits were “conclusory” in nature and omitted detailed discussion of the plaintiff’s billing rates and records.

Vienna Metro and Laffey Matrices Rejected

Judge Brinkema rejected the Vienna Metro matrix, characterizing it as applying only to “complex civil litigation.”  Instead, her opinion relied primarily upon Judge T.S. Elliss’s opinion in Route Triple Seven (discussed in a prior EDVA Update here) which characterized a rate of $420 as the “upper limit for what counts as a reasonable rate for a very competent attorney in an uncomplicated . . . dispute.”  Further, Judge Brinkema also rejected the Laffey Matrix of DC-based attorney hourly rates published by the U.S. Department of Justice.  According to Judge Brinkema, DC-based hourly rates are not properly comparable for litigation in the Alexandria federal court.

While the defendant’s expert did not challenge the $550/hour rate sought by plaintiff’s lead counsel, Judge Brinkema cut it down anyway to $500/hour, and then reduced the recoverable hours by half.  Turning to fees requested for plaintiff’s junior counsel, Judge Brinkema cut the hourly rate down from $250 to $125 on the grounds that the newly-minted attorney had not yet been admitted to the Virginia Bar (having just recently graduated from law school).  Because of this, Judge Brinkema characterized the young attorney’s contribution as more akin to a law clerk, and she applied the lower hourly rated recommended by the defendant’s expert.

Conclusion

Judge Brinkema appears to be speaking to the bar in this 49-page opinion, which provides a roadmap for future petitions for attorney’s fees.  As the disagreement over hourly rates among the judges of the Eastern District grows, it is critical for practitioners to understand where each judge comes down on this issue.  This opinion is required reading for any practitioner who expects to submit an attorney’s fee petition to Judge Brinkema in the future.

There is yet further disagreement among the judges of the Eastern District regarding reasonable attorney hourly rates.  As we noted in a previous EDVA Update here, this disagreement is manifesting itself most frequently in the Alexandria Division, as judges there confront (and push back against) the higher hourly rates frequently charged by larger law firms in the Northern Virginia/ DC metro area.

Today’s example of the disagreement comes in the recent case of Integrated Direct Marketing, LLC v. Drew May, et al., 1:14-cv-1183, 2016 WL 3582065 (E.D. Va. June 28, 2016).  In this case, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of the Alexandria Division of the Eastern District invited a plaintiff to file a motions for sanctions and attorney’s fees after successfully demonstrating that the defendant made materially false statements in both an affidavit and during courtroom testimony.  But after the plaintiff petitioned for over $63,000 in attorney’s fees, Judge Brinkema strongly criticized the hourly rates and record keeping of plaintiff’s counsel, and she cut the fee award down to only $17,000.

To justify their hourly rates, plaintiff (represented by attorneys from both the DC and Connecticut offices of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, PC) relied upon the matrix of hourly rates approved by Judge Gerald Bruce Lee in Vienna Metro (discussed in a prior EDVA Update here).  But Judge Brinkema rejected the Vienna Metro matrix.  By doing so, she sided with Judge T.S. Ellis’s opinion in Route Triple Seven (also discussed in a prior EDVA Update here) in the ongoing dispute regarding hourly attorney rates.  Below is a summary of the experience levels of each attorney, the hourly rates sought by the plaintiff, and the rates awarded by Judge Brinkema:

To set these hourly rates, the court followed the rates determined by Judge Ellis in Route Triple Seven.  Significantly, Judge Brinkema did not rely upon any other expert witness testimony or evidence to set these hourly rates.  (And, as we saw in the Route Triple Seven case, there the court relied upon its own “experience” to determine an appropriate reasonable rate.)  These hourly rates are in sharp contrast to the $550 – $600 hourly rates approved by Judge Lee in Vienna Metro.

It is clear that a revolt against high hourly rates (or, at least, rates perceived as high) is brewing among many judges of the Alexandria Division of the Eastern District.  It also appears that a hard cap of approximately $450 – $500 for an experienced attorney’s hourly rate is forming, at least in the eyes of several judges who have rejected the Vienna Metro matrix.

As the judges of the Eastern District continue to differ regarding reasonable hourly rates for attorneys, practitioners need to be aware of a potential new trend regarding declarations supporting or opposing petitions for attorney’s fees.  Unfortunately, that new trend appears likely to make such petitions more detailed and time-consuming – and therefore, more expensive.

Traditionally, declarations supporting a petition for attorney’s fees in the Eastern District have followed a familiar pattern: An outside attorney reviews the hourly rates charged, the number of hours charged, the docket sheet, and selected motions/briefs.  The resulting opinions were usually based upon a “general” review of or familiarity with the litigation.  These reviews were not usually “deep dives” into the documents, pleadings, or billing records for a good, simple reason:  keeping costs down.

This custom may need to change, based upon the recent case of Salim v. Dahlberg, 1:15-cv-468 LMB / IDD, 2016 WL 2930943 (E.D. Va. May 18, 2016), which was covered by the EDVA Update here.  In that case, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of the Alexandria Division was faced with a petition for attorney’s fees after the plaintiff prevailed on part of his civil rights claim.  The petition was supported by declarations from six leading attorneys, all whom have extensive experience in the Eastern District.  As Judge Brinkema said in her opinion, all six were “well-known to and well-respected by the Court,” and all “summarily conclude[d] that the hourly rates charged and hours worked were reasonable.”

In opposition, the defendant submitted one declaration by attorney Wayne G. Travell, a partner with Hirschler Fleischer’s Tysons office.  Despite the lop-sided number of supporting declarations, Judge Brinkema rejected much of the plaintiff’s fee petition (along with the conclusions in the six supporting declarations) and essentially adopted much of the opinion and analysis expressed by Mr. Travell.

Mr. Travell’s declaration is extensive, at 18 pages long with 47 paragraphs.  He discusses in detail the steps he took to form his opinion (including documenting the telephone calls he had with the respective counsel).  He recounts the applicable law, and then provides a detailed recitation of the facts (citing and quoting from the pleadings in the case).  The heart of his declaration, however, appears to be nearly eight pages of detailed examination of the plaintiff attorney’s time records, including identifying alleged instances of double-billing, block-billing, and vague entries.

In her opinion, Judge Brinkema sided with Mr. Travell’s declaration because he “actually reviewed counsels’ billing records, provide[d] a detailed analysis of those records, discusse[d] the specific issues involved in the case, and evaluate[d] the work performed with respect to those issues.”  In contrast (according to the court’s opinion), the six supporting declarations were unpersuasive because none went into a “detailed analysis of plaintiff’s counsels’ time sheets; instead, the declarants base their conclusions almost exclusively on a review of the pleadings and of [plaintiff counsel’s] declaration.”

Mr. Travell’s declaration is another example of judicial pushback in the Eastern District against excessive attorney hourly rates (or, at least hourly rates perceived as excessive by the bench).  But it also likely signals that some judges will more closely scrutinize petitions for attorney’s fees, including attorney declarations that support and oppose those petitions.  For this reason, Mr. Travell’s declaration is likely a roadmap for future petitions in the Alexandria Division, if not throughout the Eastern District.  And the irony is straight-forward:  While the intent may be to hold down hourly rates, the added expense of more detail in such declarations will ultimately increase the cost of litigation overall.  But regardless of this impact, practitioners need to be aware of this possibility.