A recent BLT Blog story, “Lawyers in D.C. Gun Case Want $3.12 Million in Fees” reports that the lawyers who successfully challenged the District of Columbia’s handgun ban, securing a victory in the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008 are asking for more than $3.1 million in attorney fees and costs.  Alan Gura, a lead attorney for the plaintiffs in Heller v. District of Columbia, said in a motion that the fee request is a lower amount than the more than $3.5 million in fees the attorney first requested in August 2008.  The new lower amount stems from Gura’s application of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Perdue v. Kenny A.  Gura of Alexandria’s Gura & Possessky said in court papers that the high court’s decision in Perdue “provided significant new guidance regarding the issue of lodestar adjustments in exceptional cases such as this.”  The net effect of the adjustments – including one for market rates and another for “excessive delay” in payment – produces an overall lower fee request, Gura said.

The total amount sought is $3,126, 397.  Gura said three attorneys performed the bulk of the work.  The hours remain unchanged from the first motion for attorney fees: Gura, Clark Neily III, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice and The Cato Institute’s Robert Levy, who finances the case, clocked 1,661 hours, 808.3 hours, and 595.6 hours, respectively.  Gura said that his firm does not have standard, fixed hourly rates.  Instead, Gura performs work typically on a flat-fee contingency basis.  Gura noted his hourly billing rate for Heller, before adjustment, is $589.