A recent VTDigger.org story, “Entergy Seeks $4.6 Million in Legal Fees From State of Vermont” reports that Entergy Corp. filed a motion with the U.S. District Court on Friday to recover $4.6 million in legal fees for its suit against the state.  The Louisiana company prevailed in federal court then Judge J. Garvan Murtha struck down two state laws that require Entergy to seek approval from the Legislature to continue operating Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant past its 40-year anniversary and to store high level nuclear waste and the plant site.

Entergy filed its motion for attorney’s fees (pdf), claiming it prevailed on its claim under the Commerce Clause.  Chanel Lagarde, spokesman for Entergy, said that “the law allows for the prevailing party to seek recovery of attorney’s fees.  We believe this is the appropriate next step for our company in this case where we were compelled to challenge several Vermont state laws that we believe were unconstitutional and were in fact found to be unconstitutional,” Lagarde said.

Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell said he expected the request for attorneys’ fees.  Sorrell said “they threw a lot of legal horsepower at us, they went into the record extensively and they charged New York City rates.”  Entergy hired Kathleen Sullivan, the dean of Stanford Law School to litigate the case.  Sullivan was on the short list of candidates for Obama’s recent Supreme Court appointment and she has been described as one of the most trusted advocates before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The state can challenge the amount of the fee, Sorrell said.  “This is a long way from over,” he said.  Sorrell said his office can question whether the lawyers’ hourly rates and the amount of time they spent on the case was reasonable.  It’s not unusual for litigants to go through a mediation process and retain fee experts to review attorneys’ fees on a case of this magnitude, according to Sorrell.