Opinion ID: 156986
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Hours Billed by Legal Assistants

Text: 52 The district court cut the legal assistants' claimed hours under the same general reduction it made in the attorneys' requested billings. The court should scrutinize [legal assistants'] hours and the suggested rates in the same manner it scrutinizes lawyer time and rates. Ramos, 713 F.2d at 559. Since we are remanding for reconsideration of the general reductions in attorneys' hours, we also remand for reconsideration of the general reduction in legal assistants' time. 2. Rates 53 As we observed earlier, a district court following the applicable precedent will be given considerable deference in its determination of a reasonable attorney's fee. However, the case law reveals that a district court abuses its discretion when it ignores the parties' market evidence and sets an attorney's hourly rate using the rates it consistently grant[s]. Aplts' App. vol VII, at 2307. Instead, the district court should base its hourly rate award on what the evidence shows the market commands for civil rights or analogous litigation. See Beard v. Teska, 31 F.3d 942, 955-57 (10th Cir.1994). 54 As the chart reflects, the appellants requested hourly rates of $240, $180, $100, and $90 based on attorney expertise as well as partnership and associate status. They also requested legal assistants' rates of $70, $65, and $50 an hour. With their rate request, the appellants submitted their own affidavits attesting that these are the rates they customarily charge. Mr. Waxse's affidavit, for example, suggests that he is highly experienced in the area of civil rights and analogous litigation. According to his affidavit, he has specialized since 1971 in the areas of employment litigation, constitutional law, and employee rights; he has authored several scholarly publications on civil rights and employment law issues; and he has been president of the Kansas Legal Services Corporation and is currently General Counsel for the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri. See Aplt.App. at 1857. Mr. Balloun's affidavit suggests that, while less experienced in civil rights cases, he is very experienced in areas of complex trial litigation that may be analogous to civil rights litigation. See id. at 1818. On the other hand, the associate who did much of the work in this case is a much less experienced lawyer. The appellants also submitted the affidavits of three other attorneys, one with years of experience in civil rights litigation, who confirmed that the appellants' rates were consistent with the rates charged by comparably skilled lawyers in the community. Importantly, two of the affiants also stated that the rates were comparable to those charged in this type of litigation. Aplts' App. vol. VI, at 1881, 1892 (emphasis added). 55 In response, the defendants submitted the affidavit of an attorney who stated that he believed the more appropriate award for this community on the issue of prevailing hourly rates to be $150 an hour for partners, $90 to $100 an hour for associates, and $50 an hour for legal assistants. Aplts' App. vol. VII, at 2222. The affiant concluded, In each instance, the hourly rate is intended to reflect the prevailing market rate for this community for the type of litigation and experience necessary for the prosecution of this case. Id. (emphasis added). However, in their brief, the defendants suggested that more appropriate rates were $135 an hour for partners, $85 an hour for associates, and $50 an hour for legal assistants. See id. at 2182-83. The defendants also submitted an affidavit showing that their partners billed $90 an hour, associates billed $80 an hour, and legal assistants billed $50 an hour, see id. at 2232, although they admitted that the school district's regular attorney, who did significant work on the case, billed $115 an hour, see id. at 2164 n. 2. 56 After considering the authority, the affidavits and the court's own familiarity with the relevant rates in the community, the court granted the hourly rates [it] consistently grant[s] because it saw no reason to make an exception in the instant case. Id. at 2307. The rates the district court consistently grants and which it granted to the appellants are $125 an hour for a partner, $100 an hour for an associate, and $35 an hour for a legal assistant. 57 The district court abused its discretion in setting rates that ignored the market rate evidence before it. The first step in setting a rate of compensation for the hours reasonably expended is to determine what lawyers of comparable skill and experience practicing in the area in which the litigation occurs would charge for their time. Ramos, 713 F.2d at 555. When a district court is presented with sworn affidavits from both parties that the market commands rates at a certain level, the court must elevate the dictates of the market above its customary rate. See Blum v. Stenson, 465 U.S. 886, 895, 104 S.Ct. 1541, 79 L.Ed.2d 891 (1984) (The statute and legislative history establish that 'reasonable fees' under § 1988 are to be calculated according to the prevailing market rates in the relevant community....); Beard, 31 F.3d at 955-57 (concluding that the district court erred in disregarding uncontroverted evidence of the local market rate and, instead, awarding the plaintiffs' attorney's customary rate). As Judge Posner wrote, [i]t is the function of judges in fee litigation ... to determine what the lawyer would receive if he were selling his services in the market rather than being paid by court order.... The object in awarding a reasonable attorney's fee ... is to simulate the market where a direct market determination is infeasible. Steinlauf v. Continental Ill. Corp. (In re Continental Ill. Sec. Litig.), 962 F.2d 566, 568, 572 (7th Cir.1992); and see Blum, 465 U.S. at 895 n. 11, 104 S.Ct. 1541 (noting that determining the market rate is inherently difficult and providing some guidance as to method). 58 Requiring the district court to rely upon outside market evidence when setting hourly rates while granting it broad discretion to use its personal experience in determining the reasonable number of hours expended may seem contradictory. It is not. While the invisible hand of the market sets rates, it cannot grasp, in the way the district court can, the complexities of the litigation and the parties' work product. Additionally, the district court constantly produces legal product and manages trials and, therefore, is somewhat of an expert in the time that is required to conduct litigation; in contrast, the court does not regularly shop for legal services and does not necessarily have expertise in the rates charged by civil rights attorneys. Thus, the district court may stray outside the recommendations of the parties when awarding hours to prevailing attorneys because it knows best the time which reasonably should have been spent on the case. However, in order to comply with precedent, the district court must award rates compatible with competent, trustworthy evidence of the market. As long as its decision is grounded in appropriate market evidence, its ruling merits abuse-of-discretion deference from this court. Such evidence includes affidavits submitted by the parties and other reliable evidence of local market rates for civil rights litigation at the time fees are awarded. 1 59 We have previously pointed out that [a]lthough the rate charged by the losing counsel may be relevant in determining a reasonable hourly rate, we have discounted that information where ... the opposing counsel represents a governmental entity. Sussman v. Patterson, 108 F.3d 1206, 1212 (10th Cir.1997). This is because 60 private attorneys often charge lower rates to the government because of counterbalancing benefits such as repeat business, and [w]here the facts show this, the fee charged by a government attorney is simply irrelevant to the establishment of a reasonable hourly rate for a plaintiff's civil rights lawyer. 61 Brooks v. Georgia State Bd. of Elections, 997 F.2d 857, 869 (11th Cir.1993) (quoting Norman v. Housing Auth. of the City of Montgomery, 836 F.2d 1292, 1300 (11th Cir.1988)); see also Malloy v. Monahan, 73 F.3d 1012, 1018-19 (10th Cir.1996) ([a]ttorneys in defendants' civil rights cases are typically paid regardless of their success in a case and receive payment on a shorter billing cycle). 62 We do not mean to suggest that a plaintiff's attorney is automatically entitled to his or her normal market rate. Instead, the parties should submit, and the district court must consider, evidence of the hourly rate the attorneys would be able to charge if working in the civil rights field. See Ramos, 713 F.2d at 555. Lawyers working outside their fields of expertise may deserve an hourly fee lower than their normal billing rate because of their lack of experience in the civil rights field.... The quality of the lawyer's performance in the case should also be considered. Id. at 555; cf. Pennsylvania v. Delaware Valley Citizens' Council for Clean Air, 478 U.S. 546, 566, 106 S.Ct. 3088, 92 L.Ed.2d 439 (1986) (holding that once the market rate has been set, it should not ordinarily be adjusted for quality of counsel because the quality [of] ... representation [is] normally ... reflected in the reasonable hourly rate....). Thus, the district court may lower the rates normally charged by attorneys who have not shown that they are experts in civil rights or analogous litigation, see Ramos, 713 F.2d at 555, and, therefore, could not command their normal hourly rates in the marketplace for that type of litigation. Conversely, the district court may also grant a rate higher than the attorney's traditional rate if the market so dictates. See Metz v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc., 39 F.3d 1482, 1493 (10th Cir.1994). 63 Only if the district court does not have before it adequate evidence of prevailing market rates may the court, in its discretion, use other relevant factors, including its own knowledge, to establish the rate. See Lucero v. City of Trinidad, 815 F.2d 1384, 1385 (10th Cir.1987) (Absent other evidence of prevailing market rates the district court must rely on all relevant factors known to the court in establishing the reasonable rate to be applied ... to derive the 'lodestar' figure.) (emphasis added). 64 In this case, the appellants and the defendants submitted satisfactory, albeit contradictory, affidavits regarding rates for civil rights attorneys of similar skill and experience in the locality. The district court should have considered these affidavits and granted rates in accordance with any of them or arrived at a compromise among them, or, in the alternative, set the rates according to other competent market evidence. Using either method, the court must keep in mind the controlling principle, alluded to above, that its job ultimately is to determine what the lawyer would receive if he were selling his services in the market rather than being paid by court order.... Steinlauf, 962 F.2d at 568. Accordingly, we reverse the district court's decision setting the rates for the attorneys and the legal assistants in this case. We remand for the district court to redetermine a reasonable hourly rate for each attorney and for the legal assistants under the guidelines we have articulated herein.