Ravina v. Columbia University

Background

Enrichetta Ravina, a former junior faculty member at Columbia Business School, sued Geert Bekaert and Columbia University under the New York City Human Rights Law and other laws, alleging gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation. After a fifteen-day jury trial, the jury found that Ravina had not proved discrimination by either Bekaert or Columbia. It found Bekaert liable for retaliation after she accused him of sexual harassment. Columbia was not found liable for its own retaliatory acts, but the jury found Columbia strictly liable under the city law for Bekaert’s retaliatory conduct.

The jury initially awarded $750,000 in compensatory damages against Bekaert and Columbia and $500,000 in punitive damages against Bekaert. The Court later reduced those awards to $500,000 in compensatory damages and $250,000 in punitive damages, which Ravina accepted. Ravina then moved for attorneys’ fees and costs under the city law’s fee-shifting provision, which permits a prevailing plaintiff to recover reasonable fees and costs.

Fee standard and prevailing-party status

The Court held that Ravina was a prevailing party because she succeeded on her retaliation claim and obtained damages. The Court calculated reasonable attorneys’ fees using the lodestar method—the reasonable hourly rate multiplied by the reasonable number of hours worked—and considered the degree of success, the attorneys’ experience, the difficulty of the case, the contingency-fee arrangement, and other factors.

Ravina had sought $5,880,360.56 in attorneys’ fees for Sanford Heisler Sharp, $736,840.34 in costs, and $101,753.85 for fees and costs paid to prior counsel. Columbia proposed substantially lower amounts, and Bekaert’s counsel joined Columbia’s opposition.

Hourly rates

The Court found Ravina’s proposed hourly rates excessive but also found Columbia’s proposed rates unreasonably low for some attorneys. It applied a 35 percent reduction to the proposed rates for partners, senior litigation counsel, associates, fellows, and summer associates. It accepted the proposed $150 hourly rate for legal assistants.

The Court considered the firm’s experience and reputation, prior fee awards to leading civil-rights firms, the importance of the issues, the case’s three-year duration, the contingency-fee arrangement, and the limited degree of Ravina’s success. Ravina prevailed on one of the twenty-two counts in her First Amended Complaint and recovered only a fraction of the damages she initially sought, although the Court recognized that the recovery was substantial.

Hours and unsuccessful claims

The Court found that Ravina’s counsel sought compensation for excessive hours and used duplicative staffing, particularly during trial. It reduced the hours by 35 percent for excessive work and inefficient staffing, by 5 percent for vague or block-billed time entries, and by another 35 percent because Ravina lost claims based on Columbia’s own conduct.

The Court declined to eliminate all fees for unsuccessful claims. It found that some unsuccessful discrimination and sexual-harassment claims involving Bekaert shared facts and legal theories with the successful retaliation claim. Other claims concerning Columbia’s own conduct, including aspects of the tenure process, were only marginally related and warranted a reduction. The combined reductions reduced the claimed hours from approximately 13,284.5 to 8,634.925 hours.

Costs

The Court awarded $50,000 for the work of experts Professor Deborah Rhode and Dr. Caren Goldberg. Although neither testified at trial, the Court found that their consultations helped shape trial themes, while concluding that most of the more than $211,000 sought for them was unnecessary.

The Court awarded $100,000 for DOAR, Inc.’s trial-support services, rather than the $355,984.71 requested. It concluded that the requested amount was excessive but that some trial-support expenses were reasonably compensable.

For travel, lodging, and meals, the Court awarded $5,000 of the $112,139.06 requested. It found most of those expenses excessive, including hotel charges for members of the trial team and high meal expenses. The Court found the undisputed categories of deposition transcription, discovery and document storage, mediation, and filing fees reasonable, subject to the overall 35 percent reduction for Ravina’s limited success. It rejected Columbia’s request for a further reduction based on the absence of original invoices because Sanford provided a sworn declaration and a spreadsheet describing the expenses.

Prior counsel and sealing request

The Court denied Ravina’s request for $101,753.85 related to prior counsel. That counsel handled only pre-litigation matters, including unsuccessful settlement efforts, never appeared before the Court, and did not meaningfully contribute to Ravina’s success. Ravina also failed to show that the prior counsel’s rates and hours were reasonable.

The Court denied as moot Ravina’s request to seal excerpts from deposition transcripts. Columbia had not sought redactions, so the Court directed Ravina to file the exhibits in unredacted form by April 1, 2020.

Disposition

Judge Ronnie Abrams granted Ravina’s motion for attorneys’ fees and costs, subject to the stated reductions. The Court awarded $1,336,861.63 in attorneys’ fees and $222,390.08 in costs, for a total award of $1,559,251.71. It denied reimbursement for prior counsel and denied the sealing motion as moot. The Clerk was directed to terminate the motions at Docket Entries 371 and 388.