A recent NLJ story, “Video Game Makers Seek $1.1 Million for Successful Supreme Court Battle” reports that the entertainment groups that persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a California law banning the sale of violent video games to minors is seeking $1.1 million in attorney fees and expenses from the state.  On June 27 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the California law – which would have penalized anyone who sold or rented a violent video game to a minor and required such games to be labeled for ages 18 or older – violated the First Amendment rights of the Entertainment Merchants Association, whose members create and design video games.

The California law passed in 2005 and became effective in 2006.  In 2007, a federal judge granted summary judgment to the associations and awarded them $276,000 plus interest in attorney fees.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9^th Circuit affirmed that decision, granting the groups an additional $94,000 in attorney fees.  The new request covers legal work associated with the case while it was before the Supreme Court.  The fees primarily would go to a team of lawyers at Jenner & Block, led by senior partner Paul M. Smith in Washington.

The team at Jenner & Block billed about $53,000 in 2009 and more than $1 million in 2010.  The 2011 amounts have not yet been tallied.  Nearly $254,000 of that was for Smith, who is the chairman of the firm’s appellate and Supreme Court practice and co-chairman of the media, First Amendment and election law and redistricting practices.  Smith billed between $725 and $765 per hour.  The groups sought $24,000 in compensation for hiring Paul Clement, Theodore Olson, and Lee Levin to participate in a moot court session in preparation for oral arguments before the Supreme Court.