Opinion ID: 591130
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Calculation of the Lodestar.

Text: 10 For purposes of discussion, we subdivide this cluster of grievances into four components. 11 1. Recordkeeping. Appellants single out certain time records and assail the manner in which Lipsett's attorneys maintained them. They argue that these records failed to satisfy the relevant legal standard because, in some instances, the entries were not inscribed at the same time the work was performed and, in other instances, the entries were too general. 12
13 It is important to note that the records at issue here are not subject to a single, uniform standard. Prior to 1985, we required that fee-seeking attorneys submit billing records sufficient to comprise a meaningful accounting of time expended. We warned that bills which simply list a certain number of hours and lack such important specifics as dates and the nature of the work performed during the hour or hours in question should be refused. King v. Greenblatt, 560 F.2d 1024, 1027 (1st Cir.1977), cert. denied, 438 U.S. 916, 98 S.Ct. 3146, 57 L.Ed.2d 1161 (1978); accord Souza v. Southworth, 564 F.2d 609, 612 (1st Cir.1977). Under this standard, the records need not have been created contemporaneously with the lawyer's performance of the recorded task. See Grendel's Den, 749 F.2d at 951-52 (allowing recovery of fees under the King standard for hours expended before 1985 although the fee-seeking attorneys had not maintained contemporaneous time records). 14 On December 5, 1984, we announced a new, less forgiving standard: Henceforth, in cases involving fee applications for services rendered after the date of this opinion, the absence of detailed contemporaneous time records, except in extraordinary circumstances, will call for a substantial reduction in any award or, in egregious cases, disallowance. Id. at 952. Because the new rule was not meant to apply retroactively, Calhoun v. Acme Cleveland Corp., 801 F.2d 558, 560-61 (1st Cir.1986), the King standard applies to the pre-1985 billing records in this case and the Grendel's Den standard applies to the post-1984 billing records. 3 15
16 We find no abuse of discretion in the district court's acceptance of the records presented under the King regime. These submissions adequately limn the different tasks performed, the nature of the work, the time consumed, and the dates when effort was expended. In sum, the pre-1985 time records, overall, fell sufficiently within the general parameters of the King standard that the district court, in the exercise of its informed discretion, could appropriately credit them. While many of the records are not models of clarity, the King regime did not require either exhaustive detail or infinite precision. 17
18 The billing records submitted for tasks completed after 1984 are more of a mixed bag. Although most of those records pass muster under the heightened Grendel's Den standard, appellants have directed our attention to several entries containing only gauzy generalities. These entries--which total 81.2 hours 4 --are so nebulous that they fail to allow[ ] the paying party to dispute the accuracy of the records as well as the reasonableness of the time spent. Calhoun, 801 F.2d at 560. Accordingly, the entries should have been substantially discounted. See Grendel's Den, 749 F.2d at 952. 19 2. Overstaffing. Appellants also claim that the plaintiff overstaffed the case. Specifically, appellants claim that Marilucy Gonzalez, an attorney, and Nelly Rivera Marrero, a paralegal, were excess baggage at trial. Lipsett defends the presence of multiple lawyers, plus a paralegal, asserting that a larger-than-average legal team was desirable due to the complex nature of the case and the reams of evidence which needed to be tracked and analyzed. After examining these conflicting claims, the court below found the challenged staffing practices were reasonable. Although we think the district judge was guilty of hyperbole in characterizing the populous staffing as unavoidable, we see no basis for disturbing his core finding that the staffing was reasonable. 20 As a general matter, the time for two or three lawyers in a courtroom or conference, when one would do, 'may obviously be discounted.'  Hart v. Bourque, 798 F.2d 519, 523 (1st Cir.1986) (quoting King, 560 F.2d at 1027); accord Grendel's Den, 749 F.2d at 953. Fee-shifting statutes are designed to ensure effective access to the judicial process for persons with civil rights grievances, Hensley, 461 U.S. at 429, 103 S.Ct. at 1937 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted), not to serve as full employment or continuing education programs for lawyers and paralegals. A trial court should ordinarily greet a claim that several lawyers were required to perform a single set of tasks with healthy skepticism. See United Nuclear Corp. v. Cannon, 564 F.Supp. 581, 590 (D.R.I.1983) (suggesting that, in fee-shifting milieu, district courts must zealously guard against any propensity to over-staff litigation). In the last analysis, however, staffing issues are often best resolved by the trial court's application of its intimate, first-hand knowledge of a particular case's nuances and idiosyncracies. See, e.g., Wagenmann v. Adams, 829 F.2d 196, 224-25 (1st Cir.1987). 21 This case was bitterly contested. Appellants mounted a Stalingrad defense, resisting Lipsett at every turn and forcing her to win her hard-earned victory from rock to rock and from tree to tree. Since a litigant's staffing needs often vary in direct proportion to the ferocity of her adversaries' handling of the case, this factor weighs heavily in the balance. The record reflects that the court below carefully considered the parties' importunings in light of the relevant policies and precedents, concluding that the staffing, though abundant, was reasonable and necessary given the nature of the case. Keeping in mind the complexity of the litigation, the considerable burdens it placed upon plaintiff's counsel, the number of defendants, and the defense's formidable staffing patterns, we decline to interfere with Judge Pieras' assessment of the situation. See generally Metropolitan District Comm'n, 847 F.2d at 18 (refusing to second-guess interstitial determinations in the computation of a fee award if the trial judge's determinations seem plausible, given what has transpired in the litigation); Wagenmann, 829 F.2d at 224 (hesitating, in the same context, to nitpick what are essentially factual matters); Johnson v. University College of the Univ. of Ala., 706 F.2d 1205, 1208 (11th Cir.) (The retaining of multiple attorneys in a significant, lengthy employment discrimination case ... is understandable and not a ground for reducing the hours claimed.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 994, 104 S.Ct. 489, 78 L.Ed.2d 684 (1983). 22 3. Clerical Tasks/Professional Rates. Appellants isolate certain hours which Lipsett's paralegals and lawyers billed at their customary rates, but which appellants claim involve clerical tasks. We bifurcate our analysis of this contention, treating paralegals and lawyers separately. 23 a. 24 We begin by considering 24.95 hours attributed to paralegals--hours that appellants urge were improperly factored into the fee award. The efficient use of paralegals is, by now, an accepted cost-saving device. Recognizing this reality, courts generally allow hours reasonably and productively expended by paralegals in civil rights litigation to be compensated at market rates when constructing fee awards. 5 See Jacobs v. Mancuso, 825 F.2d 559, 563 & n. 6 (1st Cir.1987); United Nuclear, 564 F.Supp. at 589-90 & n. 6. The Supreme Court has given its blessing to such a practice, stating: By encouraging the use of lower cost paralegals rather than attorneys wherever possible, permitting market-rate billing of paralegal hours encourages cost-effective delivery of legal services and, by reducing the spiraling cost of civil rights litigation, furthers the policies underlying civil rights statutes. Missouri v. Jenkins, 491 U.S. 274, 288, 109 S.Ct. 2463, 2471, 105 L.Ed.2d 229 (1989) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). 25 In setting fees, the district court has broad discretion to determine how much was done, who did it, and how effectively the result was accomplished. Wagenmann, 829 F.2d at 224. Having reviewed the disputed entries in light of this principle, we find that the paralegal fees were properly assessed. The tasks performedfiling motions, translating depositions, and the like--fell into the gray area between purely clerical tasks and those properly entrusted to a paralegal. It is precisely in such gray areas that the district court's judgment carries the greatest weight. In this instance, moreover, the judge allowed the hours but pruned the reimbursement rate by forty percent (from $50/hr. to $30/hr.). In the totality of the circumstances, we discern no abuse of discretion in respect to the court's judicious handling of the contested hours. 26 b. 27 We turn next to 10.6 hours which appellants asseverate were improperly charged as attorneys' time. We agree with appellants' basic premise: clerical or secretarial tasks ought not to be billed at lawyers' rates, even if a lawyer performs them. See Jenkins, 491 U.S. at 288 n. 10, 109 S.Ct. at 2471 n. 10; Action on Smoking & Health v. Civil Aeronautics Bd., 724 F.2d 211, 222 (D.C.Cir.1984). 28 We also agree with the conclusion that appellants draw from this premise. The disputed hours involve nothing more than translations of documents and court filings. The district court allowed this time to be compensated at a rate of $150/hr. That rate is incommensurate to the nature of the tasks. The hours should not be completely eliminated but should be compensated at a less extravagant rate. See Jenkins, 491 U.S. at 288 n. 10, 109 S.Ct. at 2471 n. 10. 29 4. Interrelated Claims. Appellants launch several broadsides directed at hours that were allegedly excessive because they were expended on claims that were ultimately unsuccessful. For example, appellants contend that, because the plaintiff did not prevail on her requests for reinstatement and other equitable relief, her attorneys' fees should be decreased by twenty percent. 6 Similarly, appellants calumnize the district court's allowance of time spent by plaintiff's legal team in jousting with those defendants who managed to escape liability and in fruitlessly pursuing a procedural due process claim. Because we find no abuse of discretion in the trial court's determination that the work done on these unsuccessful claims was sufficiently interconnected with the causes of action upon which appellee prevailed, we refuse to grant the requested reductions. 30 Once a court determines that a party has prevailed within the terms of a fee-shifting statute, 31 the question becomes whether the claims on which [she] lost in the same suit were unrelated to the successful ones (in which event no fees may be awarded for the work on the unsuccessful claims), or whether, instead, the losing claims included a common core of facts or were based on related legal theories linking them to the successful claim. In the latter event, the award may include compensation for legal work performed on the unsuccessful claims. 32 Garrity v. Sununu, 752 F.2d 727, 734 (1st Cir.1984) (quoting Hensley, 461 U.S. at 435, 103 S.Ct. at 1940). We have reaffirmed this doctrine of interrelatedness on numerous occasions. See, e.g., Domegan v. Ponte, 972 F.2d 401, 419 (1st Cir.1992); Nydam v. Lennerton, 948 F.2d 808, 812 (1st Cir.1991); Culebras Enterps. Corp. v. Rivera-Rios, 846 F.2d 94, 102 (1st Cir.1988); Wagenmann, 829 F.2d at 225; Aubin v. Fudala, 782 F.2d 287, 291 (1st Cir.1986). In doing so, we have noted that the extent of a plaintiff's success in a civil rights suit is a practical question, involving a qualitative, as well as quantitative, judgment. Aubin, 782 F.2d at 290. In such cases, [t]he fee should not be derived through any mechanical formula. It is an equitable judgment entrusted to the discretion of the factfinder, to be made on the basis of all the circumstances of the litigation. General Dynamics Corp. v. Horrigan, 848 F.2d 321, 325 (1st Cir.) (citations omitted), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 992, 109 S.Ct. 554, 102 L.Ed.2d 581 (1988). Furthermore, [w]here it would be an 'exercise in futility' to separate out the legal services rendered for each claim, the fee should simply be determined as a function of degree of success. Id. (quoting Garrity, 752 F.2d at 735); cf. Hensley, 461 U.S. at 435, 103 S.Ct. at 1940 (at bottom, [t]he result is what matters). If the fee-seeker properly documents her claim and plausibly asserts that the time cannot be allocated between successful and unsuccessful claims, it becomes the fee-target's burden to show a basis for segregability. 33 In reviewing determinations that claims are or are not interrelated for purposes of an award of attorneys' fees, we have exhibited great deference to the trial court's discretion. See Domegan, 972 F.2d at 423. This deference is motivated by our conviction that the decision as to how to separate the wheat from the chaff in a fees contest, within broad limits, is a matter for the district court's discretion. Metropolitan Dist. Comm'n, 847 F.2d at 17. It is the district judge, not his or her appellate colleagues, who has had a frontrow seat at the trial and before. Wagenmann, 829 F.2d at 225. 34 In this case, we are unmoved by appellants' conclusory allegation that a large portion of the fee award was undeserved because many of the compensated hours were actually expended on claims unrelated to the claims on which plaintiff succeeded. For one thing, appellants have done little to carry their burden of showing that hours which the district court found to be hopelessly blended were in fact segregable. For another thing, the hours devoted to the procedural due process violation, the claims against the dismissed defendants, and the request for injunctive relief involved, by and large, a tightly wrapped core of common facts shared with the claims upon which the plaintiff prevailed--a circumstance that lends great credibility to the district court's decision. 35 We will not paint the lily. Lipsett's stunning victory and the series of minor setbacks suffered en route to that victory arose out of a single series of events. It is beyond question that the end result represented a pronounced legal and pecuniary triumph for her. In the process, she prevailed on her most significant claims. When interrelatedness is in question, the overall degree of the prevailing party's success is an important datum. See Garrity, 752 F.2d at 734; see also Hensley, 461 U.S. at 435, 103 S.Ct. at 1940. Moreover, the district court wrote a thorough and detailed opinion reviewing the imbrication between the successful and unsuccessful claims. See Fees Op. at 18-22. The court's words carry considerable convictive force. Although we, if writing on a pristine page, might have been more miserly, we are constrained in this instance to defer to the trial court's determination that the requisite linkage was forged. See Wagenmann, 829 F.2d at 225 (holding that a refusal to separate out time spent on distinct claims is within the trial court's discretion if the claims are so factually imbricated ... as to make separate treatment of the constituent attorney time inappropriate). 36 Before leaving this terrain, we feel impelled to recognize a mathematical anomaly. The lodestar, as we compute it, yields more dollars for counsel ($545,281.37) than the damage award yields for plaintiff ($525,000). In the ordinary course of events, one would not expect a fee award to outpace a substantial award of money damages. In this instance, the discrepancy is explained largely by what we have referred to as the Stalingrad defense. While this hard-nosed approach to litigation may be viewed as effective trench warfare, it must be pointed out that such tactics have a significant downside. The defendants suffer the adverse effects of that downside here. There is a corollary to the duty to defend to the utmost--the duty to take care to resolve litigation on terms that are, overall, the most favorable to a lawyer's client. Although tension exists between the two duties, they apply concurrently. When attorneys blindly pursue the former, their chosen course of action may sometimes prove to be at the expense of the latter. 37