Opinion ID: 460232
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Lodestar Analysis

Text: 18 The district court appropriately used the so-called lodestar analysis to review the reasonableness of petitioner's charges, since Moore and his firm billed on an hourly time-charge basis, as they had advised the B & M, at the outset, they would do. Compare Boston & Maine Corp. v. Sheehan, Phinney, Bass and Green, P.A., 778 F.2d 890, 894 - 97 (1st Cir. 1985). Under the methodology pioneered by the Third Circuit in Lindy Brothers Builders, Inc. v. American Radiator & Sanitary Corp., 487 F.2d 161 (3rd Cir.1973) (Lindy I), and adopted by this circuit in Furtado v. Bishop, 635 F.2d 915, 919-20 (1st Cir.1980), the fee-setting court first establishes a threshold point of reference or the lodestar, which is the number of hours reasonably spent by each attorney multiplied by his reasonable hourly rate. See, e.g., Grendel's Den, Inc. v. Larkin, 749 F.2d 945, 950 (1st Cir.1984). This lodestar can then be adjusted up or down to reflect a variety of factors, such as delay in payment, quality of representation, and the results obtained, if they have not already been taken into account in computing the lodestar. See, e.g., Blum v. Stenson, 465 U.S. 886, 104 S.Ct. 1541, 1548-50, 79 L.Ed.2d 891 (1984); Miles v. Sampson, 675 F.2d 5, 8 (1st Cir.1982); Furtado, 635 F.2d at 920. 19 To determine the number of hours reasonably spent, as well as in setting a reasonable hourly rate, a court must review the work to see whether counsel substantially exceeded the bounds of reasonable effort, Pilkington v. Bevilacqua, 632 F.2d 922, 925 (1st Cir.1980), and should disallow hours that were duplicative, unproductive, excessive, or otherwise unnecessary, Grendel's, 749 F.2d at 950. See also Hensley, 461 U.S. at 434, 103 S.Ct. at 1939-40; Wojtkowski v. Cade, 725 F.2d 127, 130 (1st Cir.1984). In setting the lodestar, a court is also expected to consider a variety of factors, including the type of work performed, who performed it, the expertise that it required, and when it was undertaken. Grendel's, 749 F.2d at 951; see also Blum v. Stenson, 465 U.S. 886, 104 S.Ct. 1541, 1548-50, 79 L.Ed.2d 891 (1984); In re Casco, 25 B.R. at 755. Additionally, in a business reorganization case like this, we believe there are some special considerations in applying the lodestar method. If, as here, a railroad's emergence from bankruptcy has been prudently as well as successfully managed, some consideration should obviously be given to the trustees' and officers' views of the competency of counsel's performance and the reasonableness of the fees. Consideration should also be given to specialized counsels' understandable expectations that their bills, if reasonable, will not be unduly parsed and to the adequacy of fees necessary in attracting the most competent counsel, particularly when the legal work was of a kind that could arise as well in a nonbankruptcy context. See Boston & Maine v. Sheehan, at ---- - ----.