A recent law.com story, “Federal Judge Again Approves Bonus Fees to Civil Rights Lawyers” reports that a federal judge in Atlanta, whose bonus fee award to civil rights attorneys prompted the U.S. Supreme Court last year to place limits on such fees, has again found that a child welfare organization and its Atlanta legal partners deserve additional money for their work in reforming Georgia’s foster care system.  “The question is,” asked U.S. District Senior Judge Marvin H. Shoob, “How much?”  In remanding the case to Shoob, the high court refused to eliminate fee enhancements, but said that such fees should be levied “due to superior performance but only in extraordinary circumstances.”

In a hearing on April 1, Shoob signaled that the foster care litigation is one of those cases.  The lawyers for the class, Jeffrey O. Bramlett and Michael A. Caplan of Atlanta’s Bondurant Mixson & Elmore and Children’s Rights Inc. lawyer Marcia Robinson Lowry petitioned the court for $4.5 million in enhanced fees, about 97 percent of Shoob’s original lodestar fee award. 

The enhanced fees include an additional $3 million to “true up” what Bondurant lawyers said was a lodestar hourly rate of $235 that “didn’t measure the true market value” of counsel’s time on the case.  The request also included $1.2 million in “lost opportunity” costs for funds that Bondurant and Children’s Rights used to finance the litigation; $1.3 million to offset delays by the state in the payment of attorney fees; and nearly $400,000 to compensate for the state’s delays in paying opposing counsel’s legal expenses.

Shoob determined that the enhanced fees were warranted because of major reforms that were achieved by counsel for more than 3,000 foster children.  In awarding the fees, he also cited the difficulties their attorneys encountered during the course of the litigation, including what Shoob described as protracted delays by the state.

See also blog post, "U.S. Supreme Court Makes Lodestar Multiplier Less Likely"