Tweet
IN ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MUSEUM DISPUTE, JUDGE RECOMMENDS $1.4M IN ATTORNEY FEES
The BLT: Blog of Legal Times
http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2012/04/in-armenian-genocide-museum-dispute-judge-recommends-14m-in-attorney-fees.html
April 25 2012
Efforts to build a museum in Washington memorializing the mass killings
of Armenians during World War I have been stalled since the early
2000s, but attorneys involved in years-long litigation surrounding
the project's failure are one step closer to being paid.
Litigation over who was to blame for the lack of progress pitted
a group of museum trustees against Minnesota philanthropist Gerard
Cafesjian, who donated millions of dollars towards the project and was
deeply involved in planning for several years. The Armenian Assembly
of America sued Cafesjian for breach of fiduciary duty in U.S.
District Court for the District of Columbia.
A Washington federal judge ruled in Cafesjian's favor last year,
but fights over attorney fees and allegations of legal malfeasance
have persisted. Following a hearing last month on the attorney fees
dispute, U.S. District Magistrate Judge Alan Kay issued a report (PDF)
yesterday recommending $1.4 million be paid to Cafesjian's legal team,
which was led by attorneys from Jones Day.
The report wasn't a complete win for either side. U.S. District Judge
Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that the museum group was responsible
for paying Cafesjian's attorneys for work they did responding to the
lawsuit, but not for any counterclaims Cafesjian brought. Kay was asked
to review each side's position on fees and make a recommendation to
Kollar-Kotelly, who will make the final decision.
Cafesjian's legal team argued that they should be entitled to 67
percent of the nearly $4 million in fees and other costs they logged
on the case. The museum trustees countered that they should only have
to pay 19 percent of those costs.
Kay sided with Cafesjian's legal team on the issue of hourly rates,
finding that the museum should pay Jones Day's hourly rates, which are
higher than the rates listed in fee guidelines for complex federal
litigation known as the Laffey Matrix. The museum group's by-laws
don't cap the amount of attorney fees the organization might owe to
former trustees sued over their work, Kay wrote, and he also noted
that the trustees used a firm that also bills high rates, K&L Gates.
But Kay wrote that he didn't agree with either sides' proposed amount,
instead recommending that the museum trustees pay 50 percent of
Cafesjian's attorney fees and costs, coming to just over $1.4 million.
Kay wrote that some of the Cafesjian legal team's practices were
"unreasonable," such as billing too many hours for writing briefs,
billing for research by summer associates that may have been
unnecessary and bringing in another firm from Minnesota.
"[The museum] is grateful that Judge Kay has reduced the fee from
almost $3 million to less than $1.5 million," the museum trustees' lead
attorney, Eric Abraham of Hill Wallack in Princeton, N.J., wrote in an
e-mail on Wednesday. "We think there are substantial further reductions
and will ask Judge Kollar-Kotelly to make those adjustments."
The museum is also moving for a new trial, arguing that they have
new evidence that Cafesjian promised to pay a witness to testify in
his favor at trial.
Cafesjian's lead attorney, Cozen O'Connor attorney John Williams,
said that his team is "happy now to have it quantified." Williams
was with Jones Day until January.
From: A. Papazian
The BLT: Blog of Legal Times
http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2012/04/in-armenian-genocide-museum-dispute-judge-recommends-14m-in-attorney-fees.html
April 25 2012
Efforts to build a museum in Washington memorializing the mass killings
of Armenians during World War I have been stalled since the early
2000s, but attorneys involved in years-long litigation surrounding
the project's failure are one step closer to being paid.
Litigation over who was to blame for the lack of progress pitted
a group of museum trustees against Minnesota philanthropist Gerard
Cafesjian, who donated millions of dollars towards the project and was
deeply involved in planning for several years. The Armenian Assembly
of America sued Cafesjian for breach of fiduciary duty in U.S.
District Court for the District of Columbia.
A Washington federal judge ruled in Cafesjian's favor last year,
but fights over attorney fees and allegations of legal malfeasance
have persisted. Following a hearing last month on the attorney fees
dispute, U.S. District Magistrate Judge Alan Kay issued a report (PDF)
yesterday recommending $1.4 million be paid to Cafesjian's legal team,
which was led by attorneys from Jones Day.
The report wasn't a complete win for either side. U.S. District Judge
Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that the museum group was responsible
for paying Cafesjian's attorneys for work they did responding to the
lawsuit, but not for any counterclaims Cafesjian brought. Kay was asked
to review each side's position on fees and make a recommendation to
Kollar-Kotelly, who will make the final decision.
Cafesjian's legal team argued that they should be entitled to 67
percent of the nearly $4 million in fees and other costs they logged
on the case. The museum trustees countered that they should only have
to pay 19 percent of those costs.
Kay sided with Cafesjian's legal team on the issue of hourly rates,
finding that the museum should pay Jones Day's hourly rates, which are
higher than the rates listed in fee guidelines for complex federal
litigation known as the Laffey Matrix. The museum group's by-laws
don't cap the amount of attorney fees the organization might owe to
former trustees sued over their work, Kay wrote, and he also noted
that the trustees used a firm that also bills high rates, K&L Gates.
But Kay wrote that he didn't agree with either sides' proposed amount,
instead recommending that the museum trustees pay 50 percent of
Cafesjian's attorney fees and costs, coming to just over $1.4 million.
Kay wrote that some of the Cafesjian legal team's practices were
"unreasonable," such as billing too many hours for writing briefs,
billing for research by summer associates that may have been
unnecessary and bringing in another firm from Minnesota.
"[The museum] is grateful that Judge Kay has reduced the fee from
almost $3 million to less than $1.5 million," the museum trustees' lead
attorney, Eric Abraham of Hill Wallack in Princeton, N.J., wrote in an
e-mail on Wednesday. "We think there are substantial further reductions
and will ask Judge Kollar-Kotelly to make those adjustments."
The museum is also moving for a new trial, arguing that they have
new evidence that Cafesjian promised to pay a witness to testify in
his favor at trial.
Cafesjian's lead attorney, Cozen O'Connor attorney John Williams,
said that his team is "happy now to have it quantified." Williams
was with Jones Day until January.
From: A. Papazian