A recent Law 360 story by Rachel Scharf, “Atty in Failed WWE Case Blasts ‘Suspect’ K&L Gates Fee Bid,” reports that a lawyer who was previously sanctioned for his conduct in pursuing now-dismissed claims that World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. hid the risks of head injuries said that the company can't score more than half a million dollars in legal fees, calling K&L Gates LLP's billing rates "suspect."  Attorney Konstantine W. Kyros of Kyros Law Offices PC, who was sanctioned in 2018 for overly lengthy and frivolous filings, told a Connecticut federal judge that the nearly $574,000 fee requested by WWE and its CEO, Vince McMahon, is based on K&L Gates partner Jerry S. McDevitt's "patently unreasonable" $950 hourly rate, or nearly twice that of his co-counsel from Day Pitney LLP. Kyros also said McDevitt had overbilled for his time.

"WWE chose to provide this Court with suspect fees.  Mr. McDevitt spent far too much time performing basic work, numerous entries exist for nonrecoverable subjects, including research, drafting and conferencing over the crime-fraud exception, and over $20,000 for a PowerPoint presentation," Kyros said.  "These suspicious fees may require audit so the Court can properly discern any appropriate percentage reduction."

The fee fight stems from consolidated litigation dating back to 2014 alleging that WWE hid the risks of brain injuries from wrestlers, causing star wrestlers including Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka and Harry Masayoshi "Mr. Fuji" Fujiwara to develop chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.  The lawsuit was put to bed in September 2020 by a Second Circuit panel, after U.S. District Judge Vanessa Lynne Bryant tossed out a number of the actions in 2018 and ordered Kyros to pay WWE's attorney fees as a sanction for failing to heed the court's repeated warnings against frivolous filings.

Reached for comment, McDevitt denied Kyros' overbilling allegations and said the attorney is trying to duck paying for the time that WWE's counsel was forced to spend uncovering the "unethical tactics" that got him sanctioned.  "Mr. Kyros' deceptive and frivolous allegations are emblematic of his pattern throughout the case," McDevitt told Law360.  "He is now saying it should not have taken so much time and expense to expose his fraud on the court and serial misconduct, which he attempted to hide in mountains of deceptive and false pleadings and papers with the court."

But Kyros argued that WWE's fee application wrongly stretches the so-called Rule 11 sanction from 2018 in an attempt to recoup expenses far outside the order's scope, including an additional $39,000 for costs tied to applications following the Second Circuit appeal.

"This is not a sweeping sanctions award. It does not provide for all bills tangentially related to the sanctions motions," Kyros said in Friday's brief.  "WWE's fight to justify their unconscionable fee applications is too attenuated from the sanctioned conduct to warrant granting."  In a comment to Law360, Kyros said he is continuing to pursue the litigation, including by lodging a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Second Circuit's dismissal.  "Our team is proud to have stuck with the wrestlers in pursuit of their important claims, and despite WWE's liberal use of misguided Rule 11 filings we have stayed with the case to its conclusion," Kyros said.