The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

Wiley Rein Defends Fee Request in Voting Rights Case

Wiley Rein is defending its request for $2 million in legal fees from the federal government after winning a constitutional challenge to the federal Voting Rights Act.

The U.S. Department of Justice has opposed the fee request, arguing Wiley Rein's client, Shelby County, Ala., didn't bring the type of claims covered under the voting rights law's fee-shifting provision. On Dec. 20, Wiley Rein filed court papers that accused the government of trying to relitigate issues the U.S. Supreme Court decided.

"[N]either their antipathy toward the rights Shelby County restored to the citizens of formerly covered jurisdictions nor the slew of other objections they raise can defeat Shelby County’s proper claim for attorney’s fees," firm founding partner Bert Rein wrote.

Winston & Strawn Sues Mississippi Law Firm for Fees

Winston & Strawn is suing a former client, a Mississippi law firm, for alleged unpaid fees and expenses of more than $200,000.

In the lawsuit filed yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Winston & Strawn accused the Eaves Law Firm, based in Jackson, Miss., of failing to pay legal fees for work Winston & Strawn attorneys did from 2010 through 2011.

The lawsuit doesn't specify the work Winston & Strawn performed, except that the firm provided "legal services" on "certain legal and legislative matters." Winston & Strawn said it was hired by firm attorney John Eaves Jr., a former Mississippi gubernatorial candidate.

D.C. Courts Get an 'F' for Judges’ Financial Disclosures

When it comes to disclosing judges' salaries, investments, gifts and other financial information, the District of Columbia recently received a failing grade in a nationwide survey.

The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigative news organization, gave 41 states plus D.C. an 'F' in a new report released this week on how states handle public financial disclosures by high court judges. The center's grades were based on what information judges were required to disclose, how much of that information was made public and whether judges were held accountable for filing.

The District tied for the lowest score among states that require at least some financial disclosures by judges. Judges in the D.C. Court of Appeals face "fairly extensive" disclosure requirements, the Center for Public Integrity's report noted, but the majority of that information is kept out of the public eye. D.C. Superior Court judges follow the same disclosure rules as their colleagues in the appeals court.

D.C. Superior Court Senior Judges Challenge Salaries

Three senior judges in the District of Columbia Superior Court are suing the federal government over their retirement salaries, claiming their pay is too low.

In a complaint filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Superior Court senior judges Stephanie Duncan-Peters, Brook Hedge and Judith Retchin said the Secretary of the Treasury wrongly calculated their retirement salaries in light of recent court rulings approving raises for some federal judges.

Under the D.C. Code, Superior Court judges are paid the same salary as U.S. district judges; the local court system is funded by the federal government. Since 2008, associate judges in Superior Court earned an annual salary of $174,000, the same as U.S. district judges, according to data compiled by the National Center for State Courts.

Former Virginia U.S. Attorney Joins Davis Polk

Neil MacBride, the former U.S. attorney for Eastern District of Virginia, is joining Davis Polk & Wardwell's Washington office as a partner, the firm said today.

After four years overseeing high-profile investigations and prosecutions of government leakers, terrorists and corrupt public officials, MacBride will put that experience to use on the other side of the courtroom as a member of the firm's white-collar defense and government investigations practice.

"At sort of a macro level, I always regarded it as one of the world's great law firms," MacBride said in an interview today. "It's a place I've respected from afar." He said the firm partnership voted him in this week but he won't start until early next year.

Gilbert Sues Ex-Client for $6 Million in Fees and Expenses

Washington-based law firm Gilbert is suing a former client for more than $6 million in legal fees and expenses in connection with a $26 million jury award.

Gilbert's former client was Tire Engineering & Distribution LLC. The company, which does business as Alpha Tyre Systems and Alpha Mining Systems, develops special tires for underground mining. After Alpha won a $26 million judgment in a trade secrets case, Gilbert claimed the company refused to pay millions of dollars after switching lawyers—to former Gilbert partners who started their own practice.

The firm sued Alpha and its new lawyers at Weisbrod Matteis & Copley on Nov. 13 in District of Columbia Superior Court.

Deja Vu at Jones Day: Firm Hires Six More Supreme Court Clerks

New Jones Day associates (left to right): Ryan Watson, Ian Samuel, Charlotte Taylor, Emily Kennedy, Kenton Skarin, David Morrell.

For the second year in a row, Jones Day has hired six law clerks who worked for Supreme Court justices in the term just ended. "It's a wonderful kind of deja vu," hiring partner Beth Heifetz said.

As with last year, the six hires seems to exceed the number hired by any other firm from a class of 39 clerks--four for each sitting justice and one each for the three retired justices.

Heifetz declined to get into financial details, but said the hires were in line with the current market. That likely means that the firm paid the prevailing hiring bonus of $300,000 for Supreme Court clerks, for a total of $1.8 million, apart from salaries and benefits.

The firm hired two clerks who worked for Justice Samuel Alito Jr.--Emily Kennedy and Ryan Watson–-as well as Kenton Skarin and David Morrell, who clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas. Charlotte Taylor, a clerk to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Ian Samuel, who worked for Justice Antonin Scalia, round out the six.

Wiley Rein Seeks $2M in Fees in Voting Rights Case

The lawyers who successfully challenged the Voting Rights Act before the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year are seeking $2 million in legal fees from the federal government.

U.S. Department of Justice lawyers and attorneys from Wiley Rein, who represented Shelby County, Ala., in the voting rights dispute, are expected to fight over two issues: whether the challengers are entitled to fees in the first place and whether $2 million is too much.

The fee request "appears to present novel legal issues," the attorneys in the case said in a Nov. 4 court filing. The government and civil rights groups involved in the litigation plan to oppose the fee request. U.S. District Judge John Bates will first decide whether Shelby County's lawyers are entitled to fees before looking at how much compensation is appropriate.

Federal Employees Sue for Damages Over Shutdown

A group of federal employees who worked without pay during the partial government shutdown last month are suing over alleged damages, claiming violations of federal labor law.

The lawsuit accuses the government of violating the Fair Labor Standards Act by not paying employees who worked during the shutdown on their normal pay schedule. Even if they were paid later on, the plaintiffs allege, the government still owes them additional damages under federal law.

The federal workers filed suit Oct. 24 in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. On Nov. 1, Judge Susan Braden put the case on hold, asking the U.S. Department of Justice to provide information on proposed legislation in Congress dealing with back-pay for federal workers. The case was reassigned to Judge Patricia Campbell-Smith.

Booz Allen Settles Gender Discrimination Lawsuit

On the eve of trial, Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. has settled with a former partner who accused the consulting firm of gender discrimination.

The trial was scheduled to start today in District of Columbia Superior Court. On Oct. 23, Booz Allen and plaintiff Molly Finn told the judge they had reached a settlement. The terms of the agreement are confidential, according to a Booz Allen spokesman.

Booz Allen is facing two other gender discrimination lawsuits still pending in Superior Court. Both cases mirror Finn's claims that the company pushed out women before they reached top leadership positions, an allegation Booz Allen has denied.