A recent NLJ story, “Tennessee Wants Law Firm Billing Records Unsealed in Gay Marriage Case,” reports that lawyers for the state of Tennessee want a federal judge to unseal the billing records of Ropes & Gray and other law firms that successfully challenged the state’s ban on same-sex marriage.
The plaintiffs are seeking $2.3 million in legal fees from the state. Their lawyers publicly disclosed billing rates and the number of hours they worked on the case, but with the court’s permission they filed more detailed time entries and additional information about their rates under seal.
The Tennessee attorney general’s office, which opposes the fee request, filed papers on Jan. 8 asking U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger to unseal the billing records. Lawyers for the state argue that the plaintiffs failed to show why the time entries “should not be transparent and part of the normally public process of court proceedings.”
“The attorney fees requested by plaintiffs will be paid with taxpayer funds, and Tennessee citizens have a right to know exactly what they are paying for,” the attorney general’s office wrote.
States that unsuccessfully defended anti-same-sex marriage laws in federal court have agreed or been ordered by a judge to pay more than $11.5 million in legal fees to date, according to a National Law Journal review of court records. Plaintiffs lawyers seeking million-dollar fee awards in other states have filed their billing records on the public docket.
Of the five law firms and one legal advocacy group seeking fees from Tennessee, Ropes & Gray billed the largest amount, $677,574, which included a 10 percent discount. Partner Douglas Hallward-Driemeier, who leads the firm’s appellate practice, reported billing 466 hours at an hourly rate of $575.
The plaintiffs lawyers said in court papers that the sealed billing records included information protected by attorney-client privilege. Tennessee’s lawyers contend that the time entries shouldn’t be privileged because they don’t include information about trial strategy or communications with the client.
Tennessee’s opposition to the $2.3 million fee request was filed under seal because it referenced the contested billing entries. The state said it wanted to unseal those papers as well.
If the court sides with the plaintiffs in Tennessee, it would be the largest single payout in a federal same-sex marriage case. The state of Michigan in October agreed to pay $1.9 million in legal fees to lawyers who challenged the state’s same-sex marriage ban. Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin also agreed to million-dollar fee settlements over the past year.