Court Opinion

ID: 9475637
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:33:31.279588+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:50.053359
License: Public Domain

CLARK, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I dissent from the majority opinion for the following reasons, each of which will be subsequently elaborated upon. (1) The opinion perpetuates the deplorable past practice of fixing an attorney’s “reasonable hourly rate” by approving the use of affidavits at the extremities. It has been the custom for many years for an attorney seeking court approved fees to submit affidavits from friendly attorneys who state that a reasonable rate is that which approximates the highest rate charged in the community. These affidavits are opposed by those from friends of defense counsel who swear to the reasonableness of the lowest rate which is charged by parts of the legal community. This does not make any common sense; it is time it is stopped, some courts have done so, and so should we. (2) The proper method is to fix a fee based upon the attorney’s regular hourly billing rate, which he must prove from his billing records. In addition, the attorney seeking the fees must establish that his rate is in the range of the prevailing market rate in the relevant community for similar legal representation. (3) The majority and the district court compound the problem by setting up a two-tiered rate scheme as between attorneys who represent a corporation on a regular basis and attorneys who represent individuals on a random basis.
*1562I. How Should A “Reasonable Hourly Rate” Be Determined?
A. The Improper Way.
The district court opinion and the majority approve a long practice of the fee seeking attorney procuring affidavits that suggest the highest hourly rate, and his opponent procuring affidavits suggesting the very minimum hourly rate. These extremes which were used in this case, while not ridiculous, are not realistic. The usual hallmark of such affidavits, and it is true here except for Mr. Wilson’s, is that the affiant never states what he would have charged per hour had he handled the law suit. The language is always that the affi-ant has practiced so many years in the community, that he is familiar with fees charged for similar work, and in his opinion $75 or $150 is a reasonable fee. Sometimes the lawyer says he would charge $75 or $150 for such a case, but he never states that he has or will take such a case at such a fee. If this practice continues, and it is obvious from the majority’s blessing it will, district courts should require an attorney who submits such an affidavit to state (1) that he handles similar types of legal matters, (2) that he charges a certain hourly rate for such work, and (3) that he is willing to submit in proof thereof copies of his bills with the name of the client omitted, subject to review by the court in camera of the originals if the court desires. Additionally, I would require such attorney affiants to give the factual basis of any conclusion that a certain hourly rate is reasonable, by relating specific knowledge of fees charged by other attorneys for similar litigation, and the basis of such knowledge. None of the affidavits in this case meet these requirements.
B. The Proper Method of Determining the Reasonable Hourly Rate.
Title 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(k) provides that in Title VII actions “the court ... may allow the prevailing party ... a- reasonable attorney’s fee as part of the costs....”1 The purpose of this and related statutes is to ensure effective access to the judicial process for persons who have claims under the civil rights laws. S.Rep. No. 1011, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. 2-6, reprinted in 1976 U.S. Code Cong. & Admin.News 5908, 5909-13. As further stated by this court, the purpose of the award of attorney’s fees is “to enable litigants to obtain competent counsel worthy of a contest with the caliber of counsel available to their opposition and to fairly place the economic burden of Title VII litigation.” Johnson v. Georgia Highway Express, Inc., 488 F.2d 714, 719 (5th Cir.1974).
The analysis starts at the same point used by the Court in Hensley v. Eckerhart, supra:
The most useful starting point for determining the amount of a reasonable fee is the number of hours reasonably expended on the litigation multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate. This calculation provides an objective basis on which to make an initial estimate of the value of . a lawyer’s services.
Id., 461 U.S. at 433, 103 S.Ct. at 1939. The Supreme Court spoke approvingly of using the twelve factors set forth in Johnson v. Georgia Highway Express, Inc., supra and later in its opinion said the following:
The district court also may consider other factors identified in Johnson v. Georgia Highway Express, Inc., 488 F.2d 714, 717-719 (CA5 1974), though it should note that many of these factors usually are subsumed within the initial calculation of hours reasonably expended at a reasonable hourly rate. See Copeland v. Marshall, 205 U.S.App.D.C. 390, 400, 641 F.2d 880, 890 (1980) (en banc).
Hensley, supra at 435 n. 9, 103 S.Ct. at 1940 n. 9.
Courts and commentators have suggested that while the Johnson factors remain *1563central to any fee award, a simple articulation of them does not translate into dollars. See Copeland v. Marshall, 641 F.2d 880, 890 (D.C.Cir.1980); Berger, Court Awarded Attorneys’ Fees: What is “Reasonable”?, 126 U.Pa.L.Rev. 281 (1977). The Supreme Court has not discussed the starting point in assessing a reasonable hourly rate for private counsel, its only discussion of the subject being that in Blum v. Sten-son, 465 U.S. 886, 104 S.Ct. 1541, 79 L.Ed.2d 891 (1984), in which the Court held that reasonable fees ought to be calculated according to prevailing market rates in the relevant community regardless of whether plaintiff is represented by private or nonprofit counsel. That case raised the issue of whether a public interest non-profit legal service organization would be awarded fees on the basis of cost or prevailing market rates. The Court did discuss the inherent difficulty in determining “market rate,” stating in note 11: “and the rates charged in private representations may afford relevant comparisons.”
The starting point in assessing reasonable fees when the successful litigant is represented by private counsel is his regular hourly billing rate so long as that rate is within the upper and lower limits of rates charged by comparable attorneys in the same community for similar work. I find helpful the statement of Chief Justice Burger in his concurrence in Hensley v. Eckerhart, supra, 461 U.S. at 440, 103 S.Ct. at 1943. “It would be inconceivable that the prevailing party should not be required to establish at least as much to support a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1988 as a lawyer would be required to show if his own client challenged the fees.” Thus, the attorney for a successful litigant should establish first that the number of hours he worked on the case was reasonable, then prove what his prevailing billing rate is for other clients, and that such a rate is within the bracket of that charged for similar work by comparable attorneys in his community. Once this is established, the attorney has established a prima facie case subject to further analysis by use of the remaining Johnson v. Georgia Highway Express, Inc. factors.
I select this simple criteria as a presumptive beginning point for the reason that neither the government nor a private litigant should be required to pay an attorney in civil rights litigation a fee higher than that which he would charge other clients on a quantum meruit in his regular practice, and neither should the defending litigant expect to pay less. If there are enhancement factors such as the contingent nature of the fee, extraordinary results obtained in the case, or harassing defensive tactics on the part of the defendant, the district court can consider any evidence with respect to such additional factors. Such a system would, I believe, facilitate the proper administration of these cases by the courts and the furtherance of settlement as mandated in Hensley v. Eckerhart, supra, and Blum v. Stenson, supra.
A number of other courts have held that the attorney’s billing rate will usually establish the appropriate factor to multiply by the number of hours. See, e.g., Laffey v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 746 F.2d 4 (D.C.Cir.1984), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 105 S.Ct. 3488, 87 L.Ed.2d 622 (1985) (“In almost every case, the firms’ established billing rates will provide fair compensation”); Copeland v. Marshall, 641 F.2d 880 (D.C.Cir.1980) (en banc) (court approved fees based upon the hourly rates customarily charged by the lawyers in the firm); National Association of Concerned Veterans v. Secretary of Defense, 675 F.2d 1319, 1325 (D.C.Cir.1982) (“The best evidence would be the hourly rate customarily charged by the affiant himself or by his law firm.”); Pawlak v. Greenawalt, 713 F.2d 972, 979 (3d Cir.1983) (“The value of an attorney’s services is generally measured by his billing rate.”), cert. denied sub nom. International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. Pawlak, 464 U.S. 1042, 104 S.Ct. 707, 79 L.Ed.2d 172 (1984); Louisville Black Police Officers Organization, Inc. v. City of Louisville, 700 F.2d 268, 277 (6th Cir.1983) (“As was pointed out in North-cross [v. Board of Education of the Memphis City Schools] the marketplace normal*1564ly sets a value for a private attorney’s services: ‘the hourly rate charged by an attorney for his or her services will normally reflect the training, background, experience and skill of the individual attorney.’ 611 F.2d [624] at 638 [(6th Cir.1979)].”); Taylor v. Philips Industries, 593 F.2d 783, 787 (7th Cir.1979) (affirming district court’s choice of hourly rate that coincided with attorney’s long-standing billing rate); bindy Brothers Builders, Inc. v. American Radiator and Standard Sanitary Corp., 487 F.2d 161, 167 (3d Cir.1973) (“The value of an attorney’s time generally is reflected in his normal billing rate.”); Murray v. Weinberger, 741 F.2d 1423, 1428 & n. 21 (D.C.Cir.1984).
This approach intimated by the Supreme Court and clearly enunciated in baffey also squares with the suggestion of one commentator:
The court must determine a value for the attorney’s time that will place statutory fee cases on a competitive economic basis and that will compensate attorneys in equitable fee cases for the loss sustained in creating the appropriated benefit. For lawyers engaged in customary private practice, who at least in part charge their clients on an hourly basis regardless of the outcome, the marketplace has set that value. For these attorneys, the best evidence of the value of their time is the hourly rate which they most commonly charge their fee-paying clients for similar legal services. This rate reflects the training, background, experience, and previously demonstrated skill of the individual attorney in relation to other lawyers in that community.
Berger, Court Awarded Attorneys’ Fees: What is “Reasonable”?, 126 U.Pa.L.Rev. 281, 321 (1977).
Applying this criteria to the present case should not be difficult. Attorney Wilcox in his submission to the court attached copies of numerous bills he had submitted to private clients during the relevant period, R. 186-220, showing billings at $90 to $110 per hour. Mr. Wilcox’s deposition reflects that over 90% of his practice is representation of management in the labor relations and employment discrimination field. He testified that he undertook the representation of Mayson in this case at the request of a fellow attorney who told him that Mayson had been unable to obtain an attorney. Wilcox agreed with Mayson to undertake the representation and charge his regular fee if the case was successful less the fees paid by the government or half of his regular fee if the case was unsuccessful. I agree with the district court that the plaintiff failed to make out a basis of Mr. Wilcox’s charging fees on the basis of a rate he charged non-retainer clients. Since Mr. Wilcox had so few non-retainer clients, he had no regular billing rate in the employment discrimination litigation specialty for non-retainer clients. The eleventh factor in the Johnson analysis is “the nature and length of the professional relationship with the client.” In my opinion, the case should be remanded so that the district court might in its discretion determine whether any fee enhancement would be appropriate in light of the fact that Mr. Mayson was a one-time client.
II.
The district court further erred in this case by setting up a two-tiered rate scheme for the award of attorney’s fees which distinguishes between corporate/management and individual clients. Such an approach to the awarding of attorney’s fees runs contrary to both precedent and legislative intent.2
*1565“The reasonable value of an attorney’s time does not depend on who[m] his or her adversary is.” Rodriguez v. Taylor, 569 F.2d 1231, 1249 n. 32 (3d Cir.1977), cert. denied, 436 U.S. 913, 98 S.Ct. 2254, 56 L.Ed.2d 414 (1978). Neither, therefore, does it depend upon whom his or her client is. In Copeland v. Marshall, 641 F.2d 880 (D.C.Cir.1980) (en banc), the representation of the claimant was undertaken on a pro bono publico basis by the large Washington, D.C. law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. When the claimant ultimately prevailed, his attorneys requested fees based upon the firm’s normal hourly rates, which were those charged to its regular roster of almost exclusively corporate clients. The fee request was documented by statistics indicating the firm’s normal hourly rates for the attorneys representing the claimant and by a letter from the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law stating that these rates fell within the range typically charged by large Washington firms in employment discrimination cases. Both the district court and the court of appeals, sitting en banc, found these rates reasonable and approved them under the required standard that they be the reasonable hourly rate prevailing in the community for similar work. The hourly rates approved were, as the courts specifically found, the rates normally charged by Wilmer, Cutler and other similar firms to corporate clients; yet both the district court and the en banc D.C. Circuit employed these same rates to set the reasonable hourly rates to be awarded for representing individual claimants.
The district court in this case has not cited any precedent or public policy to support its two-tiered rate structure for discriminating between corporate/management and individual clients. Congress has clearly stated that the purpose of awards of attorney’s fees under this and related statutes is to provide for “fees which are adequate to attract competent counsel.” S.Rep. No. 1011, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. 6, reprinted in 1976 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 5908, 5913. Accord H.R.Rep. No. 1558, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. 8. Likewise, this court has noted that this statute was passed “to enable litigants to obtain competent counsel worthy of a contest with the caliber of counsel available to their opposition and to fairly place the economic burden of Title VII litigation.” Johnson v. Georgia Highway Express, Inc., 488 F.2d at 719. A ruling such as that of the district court providing that awards of attorney’s fees to individuals must be based upon an hourly rate between 40% and 50% lower than that available for counsel to corporations and management, who will in many cases be opposing the claimant in cases such as this, is thus directly contrary to this purpose underlying the statute in that such a two-tiered fee structure is undeniably not calculated to attract “the caliber of counsel available to their opposition.”

. Title 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-16(c), (d) makes this fee provision available to federal employees pressing employment discrimination suits against the federal government, such as in this case.

. I also note that the "fact” upon which the district court, in part, based its two-tiered rate scheme is not quite accurate. The court observed “that constant demands on time and consultation that regular clients make upon attorneys and the long-term and on-going relationship that such clients have with their attorneys permit charging a higher fee to corporate clients." Record, Vol. II, at 386-87. To the contrary, chroniclers of the business of law indicate that regular clients which account for a great deal of the time and, thus, income of a firm are often billed at a discount. See J. Stewart, The Partners 23, 320 (1983); P. Hoffman, Lions in the Street 85 (1973).