Attorney's Fees

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On Tuesday, Judge Kaplan awarded approximately $500,000 attorneys’ fees, under a contractual fee-shifting provision, to a defendant that won a motion to dismiss and defended the win on appeal. The plaintiff had sought to rescind certain transactions as inconsistent with the securities laws, but the defendant successfully moved to dismiss the complaint back in February 2024. The Court declined to rule on defendant’s motion for contractually-mandated attorneys’ fees until the appeal was finalized. After the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal in August, the defendant renewed its motion, based on agreements between the parties that provided for “reasonable attorney’s fees and costs” in any litigation.Continue Reading Judge Kaplan Gives 20% Haircut To Attorneys’ Fees For Appeal, Finding 100 Hours For Argument Prep “Lavish” 

In an opinion last week in a Fair Labor Standards Case, Judge Engelmayer reduced the requested fee award for plaintiffs’ counsel from $155,000 down to approximately $5,000. The plaintiffs had prevailed, but only as to a narrow aspect of the claim. After the liability verdict in the plaintiffs’ favor (in part), their counsel asked for a fee award without bothering, until prompted by Judge Engelmayer, to request damages for the plaintiffs themselves.

Judge Engelmayer explained that the fee reduction was justified because, inter alia, “plaintiffs’ counsels’ lawyering in support of these claims was anemic”:
Continue Reading Judge Engelmayer Slashes Requested Fee Award Based on “Anemic” Lawyering

In an opinion Wednesday, Judge Kaplan awarded attorneys’ fees to news networks that broadcast brief excerpts of the plaintiff’s live-streaming on Facebook of his partner’s childbirth.  Alongside the broadcasts, the networks offered “social commentary about the phenomenon of someone publicly live-streaming a life event that traditionally is considered personal.”  Judge Kaplan dismissed the plaintiff’s copyright claims on fair use grounds, and in the ruling Wednesday, he found the case so meritless as to justify fee-shifting:
Continue Reading Judge Kaplan: Plaintiff Who Live-Streamed Childbirth Must Pay News Networks’ Attorneys’ Fees for Dismissed Copyright Suit

In opinion today reducing the attorney’s fees awarded to class counsel in an FLSA case, Judge Pauley criticized the plaintiffs’ attorneys for supporting their fees by citing “caselaw” suggesting that one-third of the recovery is an appropriate amount, when those cases were really signed orders drafted by counsel in other cases:
Continue Reading Judge Pauley Criticizes Attorneys Creating Their Own “Caselaw” By Citing Signed Orders They Drafted in Other Cases

In an opinion issued this morning, Judge Oetken denied a $6 million fee request from lawyers that voluntarily dismissed a suit charging Citi with awarding excessive compensation. The suit was filed after Citi’s shareholders, in a non-binding “say-on-pay” vote, rejected Citi’s proposed executive compensation plan for 2011. The lawyers argued that the suit caused certain Citi executives to resign and forfeit certain compensation (thus allegedly mooting the action to some extent), but Judge Oetken disagreed:
Continue Reading Judge Oetken Concludes That Dropped Suit Did Not Cause Pay Changes at Citibank, Denies $6 Million Fee Request

In an order today, Judge Castel explained why, although he approved over $150 million in attorney’s fees in a securities class action against Bank of America, he would not approve a request for $3.4 million from Flanagan, Lieberman, Hoffman and Swain, a firm that apparently played only a peripheral role for the class:
Continue Reading Judge Castel Denies $3.4 Million Fee Request for “Armchair Advice” in Securities Class Action