Federal Judge Might Ax $2M Legal Fee in Seattle 'Pro Bono' Case
There’s no question that Davis Wright Tremaine won a civil rights victory for a Seattle parents group by fighting all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court the local school district’s partially race-based high school admissions policy. In 2007, the nation’s top court held that the policy was an unconstitutional violation of equal protection rights.
But when the Seattle-based international law firm sought $1.8 million in attorney fees under a federal statute providing for the losing defendant to pay the prevailing plaintiff’s legal costs, the Seattle Public Schools cried foul.
Its counsel contended that because Davis Wright had agreed to represent the plaintiffs on a pro bono basis, it was unfair for the firm to expect the school district to ante up for the seven-year legal battle—and now it appears that a federal judge may be leaning toward that view, too, reports the Seattle Times.
In response to a law firm request for an award of attorney’s fees, U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Rothstein has now asked for briefing on whether “special circumstances exist that would render an award of fees unjust,” the newspaper reports.
The law firm is now seeking more than the $1.8 million it requested in September 2007, because it has had to perform additional legal work since then as the school district fought the fee petition, although the exact amount isn’t specified in the article.
Partner Harry Korrell, who is leading the Davis Wright litigation team, says he is optimistic about winning payment of the firm’s legal fees. Otherwise, there would be little incentive for such civil rights suits to be brought, he notes.
Additional details are discussed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post
