Opinion ID: 4020402
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Hours Awarded

Text: Defendants contend that the district court abused its discretion by awarding 6000+ hours in the two cases, highlighting eleven areas. We keep three things in mind as we address Defendants’ arguments. First, Hensley focuses on the bottom line: “the most critical factor is the degree of success obtained.” Hensley, 461 U.S. at 436. “Where a plaintiff has obtained excellent results, his attorney should recover a fully compensatory fee.” Id. at 435. Second, in assessing fees, district courts are not required to act as “green-eyeshade accountants” and “achieve auditing perfection” but instead must simply to do “rough justice.” Fox v. Vice, 563 U.S. 826, 838 (2011). This means that the court can rely on estimates based on its “overall sense of a suit.” Id. Third, because the district court has a superior understanding of the litigation, we must afford “substantial deference” to its factual determinations. Id.; Hensley, 461 U.S. at 437. We now examine Defendants’ complaints.
Defendants claim that “[a] key feature of counsel’s excessive billing is duplicative attendance and travel for court proceedings.” Defendants’ OB at 23. Defendants argue that Nos. 14-4083/ 4084/ Northeast Ohio Coalition, et al. v. Husted, et al. Page 20 4132/ 4133/ 15-3295/ 3296/ 3380/ 3381 Plaintiffs did not demonstrate the need for so many attorneys, mostly senior attorneys with high rates, who were not arguing, and faults the district court for not explaining why it approved these hours. Defendants also complain that counsel billed excessive travel, particularly out-of-state travel. Defendants offer the following examples in support of their argument. First, they complain that too many attorneys billed for telephone conferences, highlighting numerous occasions when the number of attorneys who billed for a conference exceed the number of attorneys who actually spoke at the conference.5 Defendants also complain about the hours billed for attendance at oral arguments. They emphasize the sheer number of hours billed, the discrepancy between the number of attorneys appearing at oral argument and the number of attorneys who actually argued, and the number of attorneys who billed for travel. First, they assert that the hours billed for the June 27, 2012 oral argument, which addressed the Decree’s validity and SEIU Local 1 scheduling, were excessive. Counsel charged for eight attorneys to participate, but only three Plaintiffs’ attorneys handled the proceedings: Leonard and Gentry argued the merits, and Chisolm addressed SEIU Local 1 logistics. They collectively billed 90 hours for argument-related travel, preparation, and attendance for June 26 and 27 and 70 hours on the day of argument. At least four attorneys billed travel. Second, Defendants object to the 100+ hours billed for the July 30, 2012 oral argument concerning the SEIU Local 1 preliminary injunction motion and NEOCH motion to modify. Plaintiffs charged attendance for ten attorneys, even though only Chisolm and Leonard spoke. Between July 29 and 30, ten of these attorneys billed 100+ hours for hearing related activities.6 Third, Defendants contend that counsel billed excessive hours for the October 1, 2012 telephonic oral argument in this court. Leonard argued. Six attorneys billed for participation, five from Altshuler Berzon. Leonard billed 60 hours of argument preparation from 5 Defendants point out that thirteen attorneys billed for attendance at the May 9, 2012 telephone conference, although only four spoke on behalf of Plaintiffs; eleven attorneys billed for attendance at the follow-up telephone conference the next day, May 10, 2012, although only Gentry and Berzon spoke for Plaintiffs; and seven attorneys billed for the May 16, 2012, scheduling conference, but only Gentry and Berzon spoke. 6 This included the travel for three Altshuler Berzon attorneys from San Francisco to Columbus and Attorney Donita Judge from New Jersey on behalf of ODP. Defendants highlight Berzon’s billing because he did not argue the motions—Leonard did—and she billed 40 hours in preparation from July 25-28. Berzon billed 24.5 hours on July 29-30 for hearing-related time, exclusive of expenses. Nos. 14-4083/ 4084/ Northeast Ohio Coalition, et al. v. Husted, et al. Page 21 4132/ 4133/ 15-3295/ 3296/ 3380/ 3381 September 25 to 30. Berzon also billed 21 hours from September 24 to 30. Fourth, Defendants challenge the hours billed in connection with oral argument in the district court on July 12, 2013, regarding the extension of the Decree. Plaintiffs charged for four attorneys to attend (travel for three) and a total of 80+ argument-related hours. The district court did not conduct an atomized line-item analysis of the hours allocated to telephone conferences and oral arguments. However, the court found that Plaintiffs had presented “extensive and detailed documentation of their hours,” which contained “sufficient detail and probative value to enable” the court to make the factual determinations that “the hours recorded were actually and reasonably expended in this action.” Sept. 29, 2014 Op., at 6. It reiterated that “although multiple attorneys worked on these cases,” that was “no[t] inherently unreasonable,” and that “[t]he time records submitted in these cases” were sufficiently detailed and established proper billing judgment. Id. at 8-9. In light of Plaintiffs’ extensive documentation, the court found that Defendants’ conclusory allegations that fees were unwarranted did not establish that there was error. Id. at 9. Multiple-lawyer litigation is common and not inherently unreasonable. See, e.g., Gautreaux v. Chicago Hous. Auth., 491 F.3d 649, 661 (7th Cir. 2007); ACLU v. Barnes, 168 F.3d 423, 432 (11th Cir. 1999); see also Coulter, 805 F.2d at 152 (remarking that “multiple representation can be productive,” but “there is also the danger of duplication, a waste of resources which is difficult to measure”). At the same time, Hensley made clear that in assessing hours “reasonably expended,” the district court should evaluate whether the case is “overstaffed.” Hensley, 461 U.S. at 434. The district court did just that. Its “concise but clear explanation of its reasons for the fee award” is easily supported by the record. Id. at 437. Given the extremely expedited pace in the few short months before the 2012 presidential election and complexity of the litigation, the need for multiple attorneys to handle the various legal and factual facets of the two cases is obvious. In early May 2012, the litigation was quickly taking shape, so multiple attorneys’ attendance at telephonic conferences ensured that members of the team were fully and efficiently informed. Furthermore, Plaintiffs were represented by different counsel, and those counsel were required by local rule to attend all such proceedings. See S.D. Nos. 14-4083/ 4084/ Northeast Ohio Coalition, et al. v. Husted, et al. Page 22 4132/ 4133/ 15-3295/ 3296/ 3380/ 3381 Ohio Civ. R. 83.4(a) (“[I]n all actions filed in . . . this Court, all parties . . . must be represented at all times by a ‘trial attorney’ . . . . The trial attorney shall attend all hearings, conferences, and the trial itself unless excused by the Court from doing so.”). The same is true for the hearings. Take, for example, the July 30, 2012 hearing on the SEIU Local 1 preliminary injunction motion and the NEOCH motion to modify the Decree. This was a critical hearing, as the district court’s Plenary Opinion and Order reflects. Counsel of record—Donita Judge for OOC, Donald McTigue for ODP, Michael Hunter for SEIU 1199 in NEOCH and the union plaintiffs in SEIU Local 1 as well as Subodh Chandra and Caroline Gentry for NEOCH—, were required to be present. In addition to client representation, other attorneys present at the hearing made specific contributions to the issues to be presented: Leonard conducted substantive legal work in both cases; Chisolm conducted substantive work in SEIU Local 1; Berzon provided substantive and strategic guidance; Chandra, Gentry, and McTigue had knowledge of the NEOCH case history and substantive work on the pending motions; and Miller and Harshman performed work on the evidence presented in both cases. Given the importance of this hearing, complexity of the issues, and the number of parties involved in the two cases, the number of counsel present does not seem unreasonable. In any event, the district court was there and in a far better spot to assess whether the number of counsel was necessary. Moreover, in the face of Plaintiffs’ very detailed billing records ‘“conclusory allegations that the award was excessive and that . . . counsel employed poor billing judgment . . . do not suffice to establish that there was error . . . , particularly in light of the statements of the district court [explaining the award] and our standard of review.’” Imwalle, 515 F.3d at 553 (quoting Perotti v. Seiter, 935 F.2d 761, 764 (6th Cir. 1991)). As the district court found, Plaintiffs presented detailed billing records as well as Declarations explaining the nature of the work performed. Like the records in Imwalle, the itemized billing records for each entry specify the date that the time was billed, the individual billing the time, and a brief explanation of the specific task completed. See id. at 553. Plaintiffs’ counsel was “not required to record in great detail how each minute of his time was expended,” as long as the general subject matter was Nos. 14-4083/ 4084/ Northeast Ohio Coalition, et al. v. Husted, et al. Page 23 4132/ 4133/ 15-3295/ 3296/ 3380/ 3381 identified. Hensley, 461 U.S. at 437 n.12.7 When read in conjunction with the timeline of the litigation, the billing records support the district court’s determination that the hours charged were reasonably expended. See Imwalle, 515 F.3d at 554. The district court’s ruling that Plaintiffs’ requested fees for travel to and from the court for various oral arguments was therefore proper. See, e.g., Wayne v. Vill. of Sebring, 36 F.3d 517, 532 (6th Cir. 1994) (holding that travel time is fully compensable); Perotti, 935 F.2d at 764 (noting that “matters of this sort are within the discretion given the district court”).
Defendants complain that counsel spent unreasonable time conferencing with one another. First, Defendants note that 1,190 entries—659 in SEIU, 531 in NEOCH—include some form of internal conference. Defendants claim that routine block billing makes it impossible to tell how much time is billed just for conferencing, but even a conservative estimate suggest 650+ conferencing hours (300 in NEOCH, 370 in SEIU Local 1). This amounts to more than a tenth of the awarded hours. “There is no hard-and-fast rule as to how many lawyers can be at a meeting or how many hours lawyers can spend discussing a project.” Gautreaux, 491 F.3d at 661. As this court remarked in Coulter, “[h]ours spent in reviewing records, talking to other lawyers or experts, 7 Defendants’ complaints about block billing are unfounded. This court has held block billing “can be sufficient” if the description of the work performed is adequate. Smith v. Serv. Master Corp., 592 F. App’x 363, 371 (6th Cir. 2014); see also Pittsburgh & Conneaut Dock Co. v. Dir., Office of Workers’ Comp. Programs, 473 F.3d 253, 273 (6th Cir. 2007) (Moore, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (“[Plaintiff] has cited no authority to support its argument that the use of block billing is contrary to the award of a reasonable attorney fee . . . and, in fact, our sister circuits have rejected block-billing objections to fee awards in a number of contexts.”). Defendants choose the following block-bill by Gupta in connection with the July 9, 2013 extension of the Decree. Chandra argued the motion. Review deposition transcripts of counties and tabulate into chart; prep cocounsel S. Chandra for tomorrow’s oral argument; elaborate on case summaries of termination cases for S. Chandra review; prepare B. Davis declaration and confer with B. Davis re charges; prepare exhibits to declaration and notice of filing; review outline and other potential questions for oral argument. NEOCH, ID# 13744. We find the description of the work performed by Gupta in helping Chandra prepare for oral argument to be more than adequate in the context of this litigation. Nos. 14-4083/ 4084/ Northeast Ohio Coalition, et al. v. Husted, et al. Page 24 4132/ 4133/ 15-3295/ 3296/ 3380/ 3381 preparing legal documents and the like cannot be fully verified and require the court to trust the lawyer’s word that the hours claimed represent necessary work actually performed.” Coulter, 805 F.2d at 150. Here, counsel provided detailed billing records and submitted declarations stating that these discussions also permitted senior lawyers to provide important strategic guidance to more junior lawyers, without duplicating efforts, thereby increasing efficiency. The district court rejected Defendants’ argument that counsel spent too much time “consulting,” crediting the lawyers’ accounts of their time based on the court’s intimate understanding of the complexity of the proceedings before it. Sept. 29, 2014 Op., at 9. “[I]t is not this court’s job to second-guess that judgment.” Gautreaux, 491 F.3d at 661. Again, given Plaintiffs’ detailed documentation, and the district court’s explanation of the award, Defendants’ conclusory “too many hours” allegations do not establish error.
Next, Defendants argue that counsel billed unreasonable and duplicative research hours. In total, the NEOCH/SEIU Local 1 legal teams billed roughly 750 hours on research activities. This included: fifteen NEOCH attorneys who billed their own research; eight SEIU Local 1 attorneys who billed their own research; Altshuler Berzon Attorney Diana Reddy’s 20+ hours researching “expansion of consent decree”; Reddy’s 30+ hours researching civil contempt; and law clerk research on numerous subjects by the Altshuler Berzon firm (9.8 hours researching constitutional issues, 8 hours researching unlitigated HAVA claims, 9.4 hours researching “1983 injunction,” 7.8 hours researching “deliberate indifference,” and 11.8 hours for an evidentiary standards memo). The district court disagreed, citing not only Plaintiffs’ detailed billing records and Defendants’ conclusory allegations that the award was excessive, but also that Defendants had mounted a vigorous opposition to the Decree and were therefore in no position to complain. Sept. 29, 2014 Op., at 9. Further, the court expressly stated that the 2013 extension required Plaintiffs to engage in “significant substantive legal research, analysis, and strategy”; that the 2012 work involved “multiple avenues of defense in order to protect the Decree”; and that the Nos. 14-4083/ 4084/ Northeast Ohio Coalition, et al. v. Husted, et al. Page 25 4132/ 4133/ 15-3295/ 3296/ 3380/ 3381 preliminary and permanent injunction motions required Plaintiffs “to attack novel and complex issues of constitutional law.” Id. at 8. Defendants retort that generic allusions to “complexity” and “novel and complex issues of constitutional law” should not provide a free pass for scrutiny of the hours here. But the district court specifically held that this case involved “significant novel and complex constitutional and procedural issues, including the All Writs Act, the Anti-Injunction Act, the applicability of Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b), and the constitutionality of state laws and practices under the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses.” Id. at 29. We do not read the district court’s “concise but clear explanation” in a vacuum, but against the backdrop of the comprehensive written opinions of the district court and this court, which fully establish the complexity of the numerous federal and procedural issues presented in these cases. Again, other than complaining about the numbers, Defendants offer no explanation why the hours are excessive. Such conclusory allegations do not provide us with any basis to discredit the district court’s factual findings.
Defendants point out that the SEIU Local 1 team, which included six attorneys, charged 300 hours for drafting and editing the complaint and preliminary injunction motion,8 and an additional 130 hours, involving six attorneys, for drafting and editing their twenty-page reply. Similarly, the NEOCH Plaintiffs charged 150 hours, from eleven attorneys, to draft the motion to enjoin. Defendants note that the NEOCH team billed 190 hours, from thirteen different attorneys, drafting, editing, or reviewing the May 30 brief regarding the Decree’s validity. The NEOCH Plaintiffs also billed 215 hours between August 21 and September 4 for appellate brief work that included work from ten different attorneys. The SEIU Local 1 Plaintiffs submitted 375+ hours from six attorneys for the SEIU Local 1 appellate brief. 8 Leonard herself billed 120+ hours from June 7 to 21 on the preliminary injunction motion. Five other attorneys billed for drafting and editing that motion. Reddy and Leyton billed a combined 22.1 hours described as “Research and draft substantive due process argument.” Nos. 14-4083/ 4084/ Northeast Ohio Coalition, et al. v. Husted, et al. Page 26 4132/ 4133/ 15-3295/ 3296/ 3380/ 3381 Defendants also point to “excessive” time on minor filings, such as at least 8 hours to provide notice to the district court that SEIU Local 1 was related to NEOCH/Hunter litigation. Also SEIU Local 1 counsel billed 13 hours (four attorneys) for a case-related letter to this court. Defendants maintain that the foregoing litany establishes that counsel spent unreasonable hours on their motions and briefing, which often involved the same or similar issues. Defendants claim abuse of discretion by the district court because its analysis was minimal—namely, that it did not address the actual hours billed for drafting and editing, did not analyze any specific billing entries, and offered merely “a brief, oversimplified mention of the State’s positions.” However, other than aggregating the time spent on specific filings, Defendants offer no explanation why the hours were excessive. Thus, as the district court held, Defendants failed to meet their burden of establishing error in light of Plaintiffs’ detailed records and the district court’s findings. See Imwalle, 515 F.3d at 553. Granted, numerous hours by more than several attorneys were billed for drafting and editing motions and briefs. But those submissions, prepared under extreme time pressure, helped the district court resolve the issues in this case in Plaintiffs’ favor. The district court’s overall assessment of hours reasonably expended was based on its unique understanding and reliance on Plaintiffs’ research and advocacy. As we observed in Coulter, “[w]hen the issue is a question of the lawyer’s judgment in billing for a particular number of hours on a piece of work, we must depend in larger measure on the fairness of the District Court in assessing the needs of the case.” Coulter, 805 F.2d at 152. To put it bluntly, the district court assessed that Plaintiffs’ substantial success was due to the skill and substantial efforts of counsel, and its expressly said so. That decision deserves substantial deference.
Defendants also assert that counsel unnecessarily increased hours by preparing a memo addressing proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law in advance of the hearing on Plaintiffs’ statewide preliminary injunction, which the district court did not request and did not use. At the hearing the district court praised “the extensive briefing” in the case, stating that it Nos. 14-4083/ 4084/ Northeast Ohio Coalition, et al. v. Husted, et al. Page 27 4132/ 4133/ 15-3295/ 3296/ 3380/ 3381 put the court “in an excellent position to decide this PI [preliminary injunction] based on the papers that have been filed and the arguments that have been made,” but it expressed concern that the Plaintiffs’ proposed filing would “prolong the process” because Defendants might want to file a response. NEOCH, 2:06-cv-896, ID# 12353-54. The district court did not isolate the hours spent on the unfiled proposal in its opinion awarding fees. Instead, it made an overall assessment. “[W]e look to see whether the District Court, based on experience and the record in the case, misapplied the reasonable billing practices of the profession.” Coulter, 805 F.2d at 151. Because work on the proposal was of a sort that “a reasonable attorney would have believed . . . to be reasonably expended in pursuit of success at the point in time when the work was performed,” Wooldridge, 898 F.2d at 1177, it cannot be said that counsel exercised poor billing judgment. We find no abuse of discretion in allowing compensation for such hours.9
Defendants claim that Plaintiffs also billed excessive hours for gathering evidence and preparing evidentiary declarations and attachments. Initially they note that it is impossible to calculate an exact discovery total because of block billing, but the State estimates 1300+ hours for coordinating discovery, organizing evidence, and filing declarations/exhibits. Defendants also fault Plaintiffs for conducting discovery on all 88 Boards of Elections rather than a sample of counties. Defendants isolate 30 hours charged by staff from May 24 to 25 for travel to counties to pick up and inspect documents. Attorney Jared Klaus of Porter Wright submitted numerous entries referencing clerical tasks such as cataloguing emails and compiling records. On June 1314, 2012, he billed 15+ hours for “creating spreadsheet showing the status of public record 9 Defendants also claim that the NEOCH Plaintiffs billed more than 40 hours preparing an “unwarranted” reply brief on May 10. On May 9, the district court had asked the Relators to prepare a response to Plaintiffs’ motion to enjoin to be provided by the end of the next day. The court did not ask for a reply brief, but NEOCH counsel filed one anyway, thirty minutes prior to the court’s oral decision on May 10. Work performed on the reply brief was properly billed because a reasonable attorney would have believed that a reply was necessary at the point in time when the reply brief was prepared. See Wooldridge, 898 F.2d at 1177. Nos. 14-4083/ 4084/ Northeast Ohio Coalition, et al. v. Husted, et al. Page 28 4132/ 4133/ 15-3295/ 3296/ 3380/ 3381 requests to each county.” Defendants also point out that more senior attorneys billed for extensive discovery. Attorney Cathrine Harshman of Hunter Carnahan block billed 12 hours for “Preparation of subpoenas; request for production” on June 29. Attorney Michael Hunter of Hunter Carnahan “block billed” another six hours the same day with an identical billing description. Between July 2 and 11, Harshman reported 60 hours of document review and conferencing with Election Boards. The district court found that in securing the preliminary injunction, and ultimately the permanent injunction, Plaintiffs were required “to collect and analyze thousands of pages of evidence showing Ohio’s violations of voters’ rights.” Sept. 29, 2014 Op., at 8. The record easily supports the district court’s findings. As Leonard explained in her Reply Declaration in support of Plaintiffs’ Motions for Attorneys Fees, the amount of material received from the Ohio County Boards and the Ohio Secretary of State was enormous, and not organized by subject matter or relevance to the provisional ballot issues raised by the litigation. Counsel reviewed and analyzed documents ranging from (1) minutes and transcripts from four years of County Board of Election meetings where provisional ballots were discussed; (2) the Secretary of State’s statistics on provisional ballots for four years of elections; (3) maps and diagrams of polling locations; (4) training materials and Directives from the state and county boards with respect to elections; (5) voter complaints and other incident logs from four years of elections; (6) county address and street guides used by poll workers in the 2012 elections; and (7) records showing the number and location of multi-precinct polling place locations. SEIU Local 1, No. 2:12-cv-562, ID # 7333. This information had to be gathered in a very short period of time for incorporation into the motion for a preliminary injunction. For this reason it is not surprising that several attorneys, including senior attorneys, participated in the process of gathering and analyzing these materials. Furthermore, as recited above, in its Plenary Opinion and Order, the district court relied heavily on the gathered evidence in finding that the problem of disqualifying wrong-precinct ballots due to poll-worker error was “systemic and statewide.” Aug. 27, 2012 Op. at 26. This court’s opinion affirming the district court cited extensively to the volume of evidence. Nos. 14-4083/ 4084/ Northeast Ohio Coalition, et al. v. Husted, et al. Page 29 4132/ 4133/ 15-3295/ 3296/ 3380/ 3381 See NEOCH, 696 F.3d at 586. Indeed, the discovery supported the requested relief in these cases. As the district court recognized, the SEIU Local 1 lawsuit presented ‘“the hypothetical statewide challenge’ foreseen by the Hunter I Court.” Aug. 27, 2012 Op. at 18; see also NEOCH, 696 F.3d at 593 n.7 (“These findings regarding the statewide disqualification of wrongprecinct ballots amplify the countywide evidence established in Hunter.”). Offering a small sample of county boards might have allowed Defendants to argue that the evidence was insufficient to warrant statewide pre-election injunctive relief. Defendants’ complaint about Klaus’s hours is unwarranted. As the NEOCH Plaintiffs’ explain, Klaus’s billing entries established that he “field[ed] calls from Board of Election officials responding to public record requests,” NEOCH, 2:06-cv-896, ID# 13963-64, conducted legal research on public-record requests, and drafted correspondence to non-responsive boards. Klaus was a first-year associate at the time, and it was not unreasonable to have him compile and coordinate the public record requests. Next, Defendants point to the number of declarations filed. The NEOCH Plaintiffs submitted 17 declarations (8 reply declarations) with their motion to modify. The SEIU Local 1 Plaintiffs also filed numerous declarations, reply declarations, and supplemental reply declarations in connection with their preliminary injunction motion.10 Defendants’ utterly conclusory allegations defeat serious consideration of this claim. See Imwalle, 515 F.3d at 553. The district court reviewed these declarations and found, as part of its overall assessment of the hours expended, that the requested hours were reasonable. Again, based on the district court’s direct experience, the record itself, and the absence of any explanation from Defendants, we find no abuse of discretion. 10 According to Defendants, in SEIU Local 1, seven attorneys from Altshuler Berzon billed for drafting, editing, and/or reviewing declarations. From June 13 to 17, Reddy billed 44.3 hours for reviewing documents and drafting declarations. During the same period, Cincotta spent 25 hours reviewing documents and drafting declarations. From June 18 to 22 Harshman billed 34 hours for primarily preparing exhibits and declarations, including 14.5 hours on June 22 for “Preparation of exhibits for filing; electronic filing of complaint and PI motion and exhibits; service copies.” Nos. 14-4083/ 4084/ Northeast Ohio Coalition, et al. v. Husted, et al. Page 30 4132/ 4133/ 15-3295/ 3296/ 3380/ 3381
Defendants complain that counsel billed excessive time, 335 hours, for obtaining the 2013 Decree extension, despite the narrow issue. This included 150 hours preparing the motion to extend; 65 hours preparing a reply brief; and 80 hours for argument preparation, attendance, and travel. Defendants claim that this time for the extension (which was not appealed) was unreasonable because counsel was already familiar with NEOCH. The district court specifically found that the hours expended in obtaining the Decree extension were reasonable because the case had a lengthy record, it involved numerous provisions of the Ohio Revised Code and parallel state and federal litigation, the legal issues were “complex and unsettled,” and the briefing scheduled was expedited. Moreover, it found that, based on new record evidence from the 2012 election, an extension through the next presidential cycle was necessary to prevent the disenfranchisement of SSN-4 voters. Again, Defendants’ conclusory allegations of “too much time,” in light of the district court’s “concise but clear explanation” based on its substantial experience with these proceedings, cannot establish error.
Defendants claim that SEIU Local 1 attorneys spent an unreasonable amount of time, 190 hours, on post-appeal activities, including obtaining unopposed relief. First, Defendants fault the SEIU Local 1 Plaintiffs for filing a 35-page motion, eight additional exhibits, a proposed order, and a separate motion seeking expedited consideration of the permanent injunction since they had already prevailed. The drafting was delegated to Laura Trice of Altshuler Berzon, who had no SEIU Local 1 experience. Additionally, attorneys charged 50 hours for assorted activities, including drafting and editing a “strategy memo” and reviewing the NEOCH litigation. Plaintiffs billed 100 hours (seven attorneys) in relation to the permanent injunction filings. The district court expressly rejected Defendants’ challenge to the amount of time (including the use of a new attorney) spent on the permanent injunction motion: “The Court is Nos. 14-4083/ 4084/ Northeast Ohio Coalition, et al. v. Husted, et al. Page 31 4132/ 4133/ 15-3295/ 3296/ 3380/ 3381 satisfied that Plaintiffs’ work in seeking a permanent injunction, and providing the Court with the factual and legal basis to enter its Order, was of the sort that a reasonable attorney would have believed to be reasonably expended in pursuit of success” when the work was performed. Sept. 29, 2014 Op., at 15 (internal quotation marks, edits and citation omitted). Again, the district court provided a “concise but clear explanation” that is entitled to substantial deference by this court. As Plaintiffs argued in the district court, no competent counsel would ask the district court to rubber stamp a conversion of a preliminary injunction into a permanent injunction without providing legal and factual support. Defendants also assert that the only 2013 work within the scope of the SEIU Local 1 fee motion was obtaining a correct-place/wrong-precinct permanent injunction, but that counsel for the SEIU Local 1 Plaintiffs billed 30 hours for the 2013 mediation, with entries from seven attorneys, despite the fact that the mediation focused on other issues. The district court reviewed the time records and found that the fees related to mediation (as to the NEOCH Plaintiffs) were proper because in the months prior to June 30, 2013, the parties engaged in settlement discussions without reaching an agreement, and the NEOCH Plaintiffs decided to move for an extension of the Decree as the expiration date approached. Sept. 29, 2014 Op., at 10-11. As to the SEIU Local 1 Plaintiffs, Defendants have not provided any evidence to support their claim that the time included issues other than those upon which Plaintiffs prevailed. In the context of the overwhelming success Plaintiffs achieved, the district court did not abuse its discretion for failing to trim hours devoted to a process that moved the entire litigation along.
Approximately 130 hours (from ten attorneys) of the 532 hours spent on the motion to enjoin phase reference contempt. The district court denied the request to hold the Relators in contempt, instead giving the Relators a chance to comply with the injunction. Defendants therefore claimed that Plaintiffs’ request for contempt was premature. However, the district court agreed with Plaintiffs that seeking to hold the Relators in contempt was a reasonable alternative strategy, given the Relators’ “extraordinary actions in attempting to circumvent” the Decree, the short time frame, and Ohio Supreme Court proceeding. Sept. 29, 2014 Op., at 17-18. Nos. 14-4083/ 4084/ Northeast Ohio Coalition, et al. v. Husted, et al. Page 32 4132/ 4133/ 15-3295/ 3296/ 3380/ 3381 Again, the district court’s factual determination is entitled to substantial deference, for good reason, because the district court was in the trenches of this litigation. Even if we thought the amounts were high, “the call was not initially delegated to us, and that makes all the difference.” Ohio ex rel. Skaggs v. Brunner, 629 F.3d 527, 532 (6th Cir. 2010). 10. Attempted Class Certification Counsel billed 115 hours for their attempt to certify a defendant class of all members of Ohio’s 88 Boards of Elections. Defendants assert that the time was unnecessary, because the SEIU Local 1 Plaintiffs voluntarily withdrew their certification attempt after the district court ruled that the Secretary has direct authority over Board members. See, e.g., Ohio Rev. Code § 3501.05(B). The district court held that although the motion was ultimately moot, given its conclusion that the county boards of elections are agents of the Secretary, Plaintiffs were not unreasonable in seeking to certify the class because one month earlier, in NEOCH, “the State legislators had argued that they were not bound by the Decree, and so could not be enjoined to comply with it.” Sept. 29, 2014 Op., at 16. Defendants claim that the district court’s holding rests on a confusing comparison of the county board members to the Relators who brought the Supreme Court mandamus action. However, as the district court explained, it was not unreasonable for Plaintiffs to seek a remedy that would apply statewide, given the Relators’ attempt the previous month to circumvent the Decree. Again, such work was of a sort that a reasonable attorney would have believed at the time was necessary to success. See Wooldridge, 898 F.2d at 1177. 11. NEOCH Motion to Modify Decree Lastly, Defendants complain that counsel should not have billed any hours, much less more than 300 hours, for the NEOCH motion to modify, which they claim was subsumed by the broader motion for preliminary injunction in SEIU Local 1. They point out that the NEOCH Plaintiffs filed their motion to modify on June 20, seeking to modify the Decree. The motion applied only to SSN-4 voters and was based on ongoing equal protection and substantive due process violations. Two days later, SEIU Local 1 Plaintiffs, represented by essentially the same Nos. 14-4083/ 4084/ Northeast Ohio Coalition, et al. v. Husted, et al. Page 33 4132/ 4133/ 15-3295/ 3296/ 3380/ 3381 attorneys—ten of the twelve SEIU Local 1 attorneys were also NEOCH attorneys—filed a separate motion for a preliminary injunction. The SEIU Local 1 motion also rested on equal protection and substantive due process challenges to provisional ballot practices and sought the same injunctive relief. The district court recognized that the relief sought was overlapping, stating in its Plenary Opinion and Order that “the requested relief in the Motion to Modify is encompassed within the Plaintiffs’ proposed injunction in the Motion for Preliminary Injunction” and “the basis for relief in the Motion to Modify depends on the determination of the constitutional violations at issue in the SEIU case.” Aug. 27, 2012 Op., at 1. The NEOCH Plaintiffs admitted that the motions sought the same injunctive relief and requested that “these motions be heard together, so that the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of Ohio’s provisional ballot system may be adjudicated prior to the upcoming election.” Motion to Modify, NEOCH, 2:06-CV-896, at 5; ID# 6910. The district court found that the time spent pursuing a motion to modify the NEOCH Decree was reasonable, accepting Plaintiffs’ argument that the motion “was undertaken to prevent constitutional violations in the November 2012 implementation of the Decree that would have rendered it vulnerable to post-election attack and vacatur.” Sept. 29, 2014 Op., at 16-17 (internal quotations and citation omitted). Furthermore, the motion was not denied; the court’s ultimate order granted the same equitable relief requested by the motion to modify. Thus, the court found that the NEOCH Plaintiffs’ work was reasonably undertaken at the time performed. Id. at 17. The district court did not abuse its discretion. Modification of the Decree would have extended through 2013, whereas the SEIU Local 1 injunction only covered the November 2012 election. The motion to modify the Decree and the motion for a preliminary injunction arose in different cases, by different parties, in different procedural contexts. Furthermore, the NEOCH motion to modify involved distinct legal arguments regarding Rule 60, which was not at issue in the SEIU Local 1 preliminary injunction. As the district court noted, had Plaintiffs not moved for modification, the Decree would have been vulnerable to constitutional attack, since it provided protection for SSN-4 voters who cast wrong-precinct ballots due to poll-worker error Nos. 14-4083/ 4084/ Northeast Ohio Coalition, et al. v. Husted, et al. Page 34 4132/ 4133/ 15-3295/ 3296/ 3380/ 3381 but not for others. Thus, that counsel sought overlapping relief for the 2012 election on behalf of their separate clients did not render the work in NEOCH unreasonable. 12. Recap Although Defendants vigorously and repeatedly tell us that requested hours are unreasonable, they never tell us how and why the hours were excessive except to say that they are “too high.” Other than aggregating numbers, Defendants have utterly failed to establish that the requested hours were unnecessary in the context of the litigation before the district court and this court and that counsel exercised poor billing judgment.11 In light of Plaintiffs’ detailed billing records and declarations, which provide a comprehensive picture of how the hours were spent, and the district court’s “concise but clear explanations,” Defendants have failed to show that the district court abused its discretion in awarding the requested hours. As detailed above, the record speaks for Plaintiffs. As the district court observed, “Plaintiffs’ victory in this case was . . . a substantial victory in a hugely complex case involving unsettled areas of both constitutional and procedural law.” Sept. 29, 2014 Op. at 26. In the course of just over six months, the NEOCH Plaintiffs defeated an effort to render the federal Decree void through state Supreme Court original proceedings; assembled “voluminous evidence” of poll-worker error causing voter disenfranchisement; defended the Decree against vacatur on appeal, including prevailing on both the Rule 60 standard and application of that standard to the Decree; and then, along with SEIU Local 1 Plaintiffs, obtained, and successfully defended on appeal, a major voting rights opinion from this court, a statewide injunction requiring state officials to count tens of thousands of ballots that would otherwise have been rejected in the then-imminent general election. That injunction was later converted to a permanent injunction. The SEIU Local 1 case involved complex and novel issues of equal protection and due process in the context of election administration. The Bush v. Gore equal 11 We find it curious, or perhaps not so, that Defendants did not attempt to establish unreasonableness by contrasting Plaintiffs’ hours with the time expended by their attorneys. In essence, Defendants are asking this court to cull through the records and conduct an atomized line-item review. But as stated throughout this opinion, the Supreme Court does not require district courts to conduct such an analysis and precludes us from micromanaging fee awards. Nos. 14-4083/ 4084/ Northeast Ohio Coalition, et al. v. Husted, et al. Page 35 4132/ 4133/ 15-3295/ 3296/ 3380/ 3381 protection issues raised by the Decree itself were unprecedented and complex. Finally, the NEOCH Plaintiffs obtained an extension of the Decree through the end of the next Presidential cycle, until December 31, 2016. The district court not only had a front-row seat during these proceedings, but it actively participated by resolving the complex issues in this case in comprehensive written opinions produced on an expedited basis, with the aid of substantial expertise and effort from Plaintiffs’ counsel in the face of vigorous opposition by Defendants. The district court’s 31-page opinion explained the bases for its fee award as to the hours reasonably expended. That decision is entitled to substantial deference. We find no abuse of discretion. Given this conclusion, we need not address Defendants’ request for an across-the-board reduction.