A recent Law 360 story by Chris Villani, “Judge Halves Fee Bid in Boston Cop Bias Suit,” reports that Lichten & Liss-Riordan PC and Fair Work PC will receive nearly $1 million in fees and costs for their work representing Boston police officers in a discrimination suit, or less than half of the $2.3 million they sought, after a judge ruled they could not bill for hours spent litigating a similar case.

The Boston officers were awarded a $484,000 back pay judgment against the city after it was found that they missed out on promotions due to an exam twice found to be discriminatory, capping a case that was litigated for eight years.  The city skewered the initial bid for $2.3 million in fees as "beyond the pale" and called the hourly rates "egregiously high."

U.S. District Judge William G. Young scaled back the initial fee ask by more than 50%, siding with the city on a key point of contention: the officers' inclusion of nearly $1 million in legal fees and costs from an earlier, related lawsuit, Lopez v. City of Lawrence, which was litigated by the same lawyers.  "This court shares the Sixth Circuit's concern about the 'idea of ever permitting plaintiffs' counsel to receive fees for work performed in a completely separate case,'" Judge Young wrote, quoting the 2013 appellate ruling in Binta B. v. Gordon.

"Doing so could lead to all sorts of oddities, as illustrated by this case where counsel would be permitted to recover fees for thousands of hours of time spent litigating a case they lost," the judge added, again quoting from the Sixth Circuit ruling.

Nixing the hours spent by the firms in Lopez shaved $977,951 off the initial fee request.  Judge Young imposed another 20% "global reduction" on the hours billed by each attorney in the Smith case, ruling that the billing was overly vague.  "A more precise description of the topic researched or discussed, or a reference as to what documents were being reviewed would allow a court to determine whether the time spent during the litigation was reasonable," Judge Young wrote.  The deductions left a total of $607,272 in attorney fees and another $346,372 in costs.

"The plaintiffs in this case prevailed at two lengthy trials in 2014-2015 and 2019," Harold L. Lichten of Lichten & Liss-Riordan PC said in a statement.  "Thus, it is not surprising that plaintiffs' counsel has been awarded substantial fees and costs in connection with this litigation.  We respect the court's reasoned opinion."

The officers argued in their initial request in June, which sought $1.67 million in fees and $665,359 in costs, that the high tab was merited because the case, which began in 2012, will have a "profound" impact on police promotional examinations.  They also cited Boston's insistence on fighting even after a judge found years ago that the test in question was biased against minority candidates.

The city countered in August that the hourly rates listed for the attorneys who worked the case were far too high.  The city also argued there was no "legitimate basis" to include billing from the Lopez case, saying it dealt with "different exams, brought by different plaintiffs against different defendant cities … tried to a different judge, and which the plaintiffs indisputably lost at trial and on appeal."