Amici Request En Banc Review of Standards on Fee-Splitting
Commentary
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Read more on the case and the Center's brief.
"Recent federal court decisions establish a 'virtually insurmountable' standard for determining fees for out-of-district counsel that will 'rob some civil rights plaintiffs of the only representation they can find,' insists a broad coalition of 30 public interest organizations and private law firms.
An amicus brief filed yesterday on behalf of the group by the Brennan Center for Justice and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison asks the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit for en banc consideration of the standard adopted in Lochren v. County of Suffolk, 08-2723-cv, and Simmons v. New York City Transit Authority, 575 F.3d 170 (2009).
In Lochren, the circuit concluded that to be compensated at their standard rates, out-of-district counsel must 'persuasively establish that a reasonable client would have selected' them 'because doing so would likely (not just possibly) produce a substantially better result' than a lawyer within the district.
This approach 'ignores the fact that the Eastern and Southern District are part of a single integrated city,' the Lochren amici wrote. They say that it ignores the 'high frequency' with which Eastern District civil rights plaintiffs, including those in Long Island, turn to Manhattan-based counsel . . . ."
Amici: Alterman & Boop, Anti-Discrimination Center, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Beldock Levine & Hoffman, Brennan Center for Justice, Brian L. Bromberg Law Office, Chittur & Associates, Conover Law Offices, Eisenberg & Schnell, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady, Fair Housing Justice Center, Housing Works, Impact Fund, Janice Goodman Law Offices, Kraus & Zuchlewski, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Lansner Kubitschek Schaffer & Zuccardy, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, League of Women Voters of New York State, Legal Action Center, Legal Aid Society of New York City, MFY Legal Services, National Consumer Law Center, National Employment Law Project,National Employment Lawyers Association (New York), National Women's Law Center,Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, Neufeld Scheck & Brustin, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Vladeck, Waldman, Elias & Engelhard