A recent Law 360 story by Lynn LaRowe, “Southwest Slams ‘Excessive’ Fee Bid in Religious Bias Case”, reports that Southwest Airlines has called on a Texas federal court to reduce the nearly $180,000 in fees sought by a flight attendant in connection with contempt proceedings that followed her victory in a religious bias suit against the airline, saying the requested amount is "excessive rather than reasonable."  In a brief, the airline said that while it "previously agreed to pay plaintiff's reasonable attorney's fees in connection with her contempt motion," the amount requested should be cut to about $83,000.  "However, Southwest respectfully submits that [Carter's] fee request is, in substantial part, excessive rather than reasonable," the airline said.

U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr sanctioned Southwest and in-house lawyers Kerrie Forbes, Kevin Minchey and Chris Maberry in August, saying they "didn't come close to complying with the court's order" in posting a notice of non-discrimination over religious beliefs, and that the three attorneys "were at the root of the problem."  The judge ordered them to attend training given by Alliance Defending Freedom, which advocates against abortion, and LGBTQ and similar causes.

Last month, plaintiff Charlene Carter urged the court to order Southwest to pay roughly $176,000 in attorney fees, $3,000 in expenses and $600 in other costs to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation Inc., which represents her.  The airline pointed out in its brief that the court held "approximately 9 hours of hearing (approximately 3 hours of which occurred ex parte without plaintiff's participation) during which [Bobby G. Pryor] examined four members of Southwest's legal team, [Matthew B. Gilliam] made a closing argument, and [Matthew D. Hill] displayed exhibits," referring to members of Carter's legal team.

Southwest is asking Judge Starr to cut Carter's lawyers' request to be paid for "nearly 500 hours of attorney time" and reduce the total award to just over $83,000.  The airline argues that Carter's team used "block billing" for a large portion of their attorney fees, "making it impossible to assess how much time counsel spent on each specified task, and whether that time was reasonable."  Southwest also noted that the court had reduced a previous fee award request from Carter's team by 30% that included block billing.

The airline further argued that each of the three lawyers who attended the contempt hearing had more than a decade of experience, and each could have handled the matter solo.  "Mr. Pryor handled all of the witness examinations," the airline said.  "In contrast, Mr. Hill's role was limited to displaying exhibits from his computer, a task that a non-lawyer could have handled; and Mr. Gilliam's role was to make a brief closing argument at the conclusion of the contempt hearing."

Southwest also said Carter's lawyers spent a lot of time filing pretrial motions related to the contempt proceeding, which were "unnecessary and minimally successful," and that Carter's attorneys have shown "a failure to exercise billing judgment."  The brief includes a detailed chart outlining the reasons for the more than $90,000 in reductions sought by the airline to Carter's fee bid.