Court Opinion

ID: 9747890
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 15:41:12.286951+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:27.777039
License: Public Domain

GRADY, District Judge,
dissenting in part and concurring in part.
I concur in the allowance of fees to the DelValle plaintiffs and the denial of fees to the Rybicki plaintiffs. While agreeing that the Crosby plaintiffs are prevailing parties and thus entitled to fees, I dissent from the awards made to Jenner & Block, Braun and Newhouse, United Technologies and Robert Starks.
JENNER & BLOCK
I believe that $230,000.00 is an excessive amount for the work that was done by Jenner & Block in this case. I note initially that Jenner & Block negotiated a written retainer agreement with the Crosby plaintiffs pursuant to which their fee for handling the case through the district court was to be $50,000.00. They now seek to *864recover SVa times what they bargained for with the plaintiffs. The majority has cut that somewhat to a little over 4'/2 times. I do not suggest that in seeking fees under the Act an attorney should necessarily be limited to the amount provided for in his fee agreement. On the other hand, that amount will usually be a good indication of what the attorney himself believed his services would be worth. I doubt that the case turned out to be any more extended or complex than Jenner & Block anticipated at the time the fee was set.
This case illustrates what can happen when hourly rates are multiplied by hours to yield a dollar figure. Hours have a way of mounting up, especially where, as here, numerous attorneys work on a case. The dollar figure yielded by the simple computation of hours multiplied by hourly rates may bear little resemblance to what would otherwise seem a reasonable fee.
This case calls for application of the rule that “Relief that is not a product of the litigation but that is the result of entirely independent events cannot properly be considered as part of the results obtained by the plaintiff’s efforts.” Illinois Welfare Rights Organization, et al. v. Miller, 723 F.2d 564, 568 (7th Cir.1983). The original relief granted plaintiffs on January 12, 1982, (“Rybieki I”) was in large part a product of this court’s own analysis of the facts and research of the law. The additional relief granted thereafter (“Rybieki II”) was prompted by the 1982 amendments to the Voting Rights Act and the majority’s independent evaluation of the specific impact of those legislative changes.
It is my view that a fee of $150,000.00 would generously compensate Jenner & Block for the work it did in this case.
CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN AND RICHARD H. NEWHOUSE, JR.
There are several problems with the claims of Braun and Newhouse. One is that they kept no time records. As they state in their petitions, they have attempted to reconstruct the time they spent by examining the time records of Jenner & Block. Not only are the time entries in the Braun and Newhouse petitions -unsupported by any contemporaneous records, they are wholely barren of any detail concerning what was done. During the trial, for instance, both Braun and Newhouse claim whole days of time on work they describe simply as “trial preparation,” or “work on offer of proof.” In Brown v. Stackler, 612 F.2d 1057, 1059 (7th Cir. 1980), the court held that a total denial of fees is "... an entirely appropriate, and hopefully effective, means of encouraging counsel to maintain adequate records and submit reasonable, carefully calculated and conscientiously measured claims when seeking statutory counsel fees.”
Another problem — not. unrelated to the insufficiency in record keeping — is the question of whether there is duplication between whatever work Braun and New-house did and the simultaneous efforts of Jenner & Block, their retained counsel. Jenner & Block entered the case early November 1981. The first time charge is Mr. Coleman’s entry of November 3. Of the total 370.50 hours claimed by Braun, only 23.50 hours were spent prior to November 3, 1981. The same situation exists with respect to Newhouse. Of his claimed 278.-50 hours, only 50.50 hours were spent before November 3, 1981. In the case of both Braun and Newhouse, the bulk of their claimed time was expended during the progress of the trial.
I am also skeptical of the $100.00 per hour rate claimed by Braun and Newhouse. If I were inclined to allow them any fees at all, I would want to inquire into the hourly rates they are accustomed to charging clients in their law practices. Moreover, it appears that most of the time for which Braun and Newhouse claim compensation was spent in investigation, gathering statistics, and helping prepare maps. In Johnson v. Georgia Highway Express, Inc., 488 F.2d 714, 717 (5th Cir.1974), the court noted that:
It is appropriate to distinguish between legal work, in the strict sense, and investigation, clerical work, compilation of *865facts and statistics and other work which can often be accomplished by non-lawyers, but which a lawyer may do because he has no other help available. Such non-legal work may command a lesser rate. Its dollar value is not enhanced just because a lawyer does it.
In spite of these reservations, I would allow Braun and Newhouse appropriate compensation for any legal work they did prior to Jenner & Block’s entry into the case, were it not for a consideration which overshadows everything I have said so far. There is a serious problem with the effort of these claimants to play the dual role of witness and lawyer. (I do not think it is necessary to reach the broader question discussed by the majority, whether a lawyer appearing pro se is entitled to recover fees under the Act, because I focus on the fact that Braun and Newhouse were not simply parties but important witnesses in the case.) The ethical proscription against a lawyer testifying in a case in which he participates as an attorney is well known:
The advocate-witness rule, which articulates the professional impropriety of assuming the dual role of advocate and witness in a single proceeding, has deep roots in American law. Today, the rule is reflected in the ABA Code of Professional Responsibility, which states as an “ethical consideration:”
The roles of an advocate and of a witness are inconsistent; the function of an advocate is to advance or argue the cause of another, while that of a witness is to state facts objectively.
The Code’s Disciplinary Rules have codified this ethical consideration. The Rules prohibit an attorney from accepting employment in contemplated or pending litigation when it is obvious that he will be called as a witness. If the need for his testimony becomes apparent after the attorney has undertaken employment in the case, he must withdraw from the conduct of the trial. These requirements do not apply, however, in exceptional circumstances enumerated in the Disciplinary Rules: where the testimony will relate solely to an uncontested or formal matter and there is no reason to believe that substantial evidence will be offered in opposition to the testimony, and where refusal to testify would work a “substantial hardship” on the client. These ethical rules apply to all lawyers, including government prosecutors, although application of the rule varies depending on the circumstances in individual cases.
United States v. Johnston, 690 F.2d 638, 642 (7th Cir.1982) (en banc). The rule applies to bench trials as well as jury trials. Id. at 644.
The advocate-witness rule would appear to apply with particular force in this case, since if Braun and Newhouse considered themselves attorneys in the case at the time they testified, their testimony was affected not only by that fact but by the additional fact that they regarded themselves as having a contingent financial interest in the outcome of the case. The court was not advised at the time Braun and Newhouse testified that they were intending to claim substantial sums of money as attorneys’ fees in the event plaintiffs prevailed. If they had that intention, it should have been made known to the court. In fact, all three members of the court were surprised when Braun and Newhouse petitioned for fees. It had not occurred to any member of the court that Braun and Newhouse regarded themselves as attorneys in the case as distinguished from parties plaintiff.
It seems to me unlikely that at the time they testified Braun and Newhouse considered their roles to be that of attorneys in the case. I think it more probable that they regarded themselves simply as plaintiffs who were vitally interested in the social and political issues presented. Their failure to keep any time records is entirely consistent with their having had no intention of submitting a claim for attorneys fees.
I believe that Braun and Newhouse have an ethical dilemma. If at the time they testified they regarded themselves as lawyers in the case, entitled to claim fees in *866the event plaintiffs won, they were violating the advocate-witness rule. (It is immaterial that Braun and Newhouse did not question witnesses or argue from the lectern during the trial; they argued effectively from the witness stand and made their presence felt during the trial just as much as they would have had they been formally denominated trial counsel — certainly as much if not more so than some of the attorneys who sat through the trial as trial counsel.) On the other hand, if Braun and Newhouse did not regard themselves as attorneys in the case at the time they testified, their present effort to cash in retroactively is based on a misrepresentation.
Whatever their intention was at the time they testified, the fact that they did testify now precludes Braun and Newhouse from claiming attorneys’ fees. The court cannot permit an attorney to defeat the advocate-witness rule by waiting until after he testifies to decide whether he will regard himself as having been an attorney in the case all along. The petitions of Braun and New-house for attorneys’ fees should be denied.
UNITED TECHNOLOGIES
In addition to her own fee application, Carol Moseley Braun has submitted the claim of United Technologies for $50,-000.00. The majority has allowed full payment of this amount. United Technologies is the organization which furnished assistance to the Crosby plaintiffs in preparing statistical data, maps and other trial exhibits. The principal activity of the organization was to prepare the Crosby map, an exhibit which was never received in evidence and was tendered only as an offer of proof after the conclusion of the trial. The map had nothing to do with the relief that was granted in the case, and was no assistance whatever to the resolution of the issues.
Ms. Braun has furnished a “breakdown” of the charges by United Technologies. Appendix 2 to Exhibit 3 of Consolidated Fee Petition. This document, which is not verified by anyone from United Technologies, says that six persons spent a total of 978 hours at rates ranging from $50.00 to $100.00 per hour, for a total of $81,040.00. For instance, Anthony C. Jackson claims 270 hours at $100.00 per hour for a total of $27,000.00. Wayne Jackson claims 248 hours at $100.00 per hour for a total of $24,800.00. Will Crosby claims 31 hours at $50.00 per hour for a total of $1,550.00. There is no indication as to the identity, educational background or other qualifications of any of these six persons or any indication of what their customary charges are for this kind of work or if, indeed, they customarily do this kind of work. Presumably, Will Crosby of United Technologies is the same Will Crosby referred to in the majority opinion as having been instrumental in initiating this case.
Ms. Braun states in her petition that “Despite the fact that NTU’s hours and hourly rates justify a request in excess of $80,000.00, Mr. Anthony Jackson, President of NTU, has informed me that he believes $50,000.00 would be a fair and reasonable payment for the services rendered. I agree with Mr. Jackson.” Consolidated Fee Petition, Exhibit 3, p. 2-3. It is on this basis that the majority has awarded United Technologies $50,000.00. I suggest that the factual basis for this award is totally lacking and that, at the very least, an evidentiary hearing is required to determine what amount of money would constitute reasonable compensation for whatever valuable service United Technologies may have rendered.
ROBERT STARK
The majority allows Robert Stark the sum of $1,000.00, stating that his testimony was necessary and helpful to plaintiffs’ case. My recollection of the court’s reaction to Mr. Stark’s testimony is precisely the opposite: I found him to be a biased witness whose testimony was not helpful in the least. I would allow no fees for Mr. Stark.
IT IS SO ORDERED.