City of Almaty, Kazahkstan v. Mukhtar Ablyazov

Background

The court had previously granted Triadou SPV S.A.’s motion for sanctions based on the plaintiffs’ improper withholding of documents on privilege grounds. The documents included a contract with Litco, a non-party investigative firm, and communications with two non-party witnesses, Felix Sater and Frank Monstrey. In that earlier ruling, the court held that Triadou was entitled to attorneys’ fees and costs.

Triadou then sought $57,353.85 in attorneys’ fees and $867.96 in costs for its successful sanctions-related motion, plus $9,204.75 for preparing the fee application. The work was performed by attorneys at Blank Rome LLP. The requested rates ranged from $300 to $950 per hour after accounting for the court’s adjustments described below. Triadou presented billing records, attorney qualifications, and a declaration stating that the amounts had actually been billed to Triadou. The firm’s regular rates included a 10% discount for Triadou.

Legal standard

The court explained that a fee applicant must show that its requested fees are reasonable. Courts generally calculate a presumptively reasonable fee, called a “lodestar,” by multiplying a reasonable hourly rate by the number of reasonably expended hours. The court considers prevailing rates in the district, the lawyers’ experience, the complexity of the matter, and other case-specific factors.

The court also reviews whether the hours were necessary and may exclude or reduce time that is excessive, redundant, vague, or otherwise unnecessary. Because these fees arose from discovery sanctions, the purpose of the award was to compensate Triadou for costs it should not have had to bear, rather than to reward Triadou for prevailing in the overall litigation.

Hourly rates

The court found that the attorneys had acted professionally and advocated vigorously for Triadou. It also found that the requested rates were generally supported by the lawyers’ qualifications, the firm’s regular billing rates, and comparable rates approved in the district.

The court nevertheless reduced Shareen Sawar’s rate for work performed in early 2019. Because she had been practicing for less than a year during that period, the court found that $300 per hour was more appropriate than the $330 per hour Triadou requested.

The court approved rate increases for Deborah Skakel and Alex Hassid. It rejected an approximately 30% increase for Robyn Michaelson as unreasonable and instead approved Michaelson’s rate at $495 per hour for 2019 and $515 per hour for 2020.

Hours and requested work

Triadou sought compensation for 42.7 hours spent on its 2018 motion to compel production of the Litco papers, 65.5 hours spent on its 2019 sanctions filings, and 15.2 hours spent on the fee application. The plaintiffs argued that Triadou should receive substantially less because some time concerned unsuccessful portions of the filings, work that would have occurred regardless, and vague or block-billed entries. The plaintiffs proposed a 50% reduction for the Litco-related work and argued that only 20% of the sanctions-filing fees should be awarded.

The court found that the billing records were not entirely vague but did not adequately separate time spent on different legal and factual arguments. It concluded that Triadou’s own allocation of time was therefore difficult to evaluate. The court found the plaintiffs’ proposed reductions too severe, but applied an additional 10% reduction to the hours related to the Litco filings and sanctions motion, after the 10% reduction already made by Triadou’s counsel.

Fee application and costs

The court found that the time spent preparing the fee application was reasonable and appropriately delegated mostly to Michaelson. After applying Michaelson’s adjusted 2020 rate, it awarded $8,940.50 for that work.

Triadou requested $867.96 in costs for legal research. Because Triadou had already applied a discount when the research was not specific to the issues, the plaintiffs argued that the discount was arbitrary. The court agreed that the costs should be reduced by an additional 10% and awarded $781.16.

Disposition

The court awarded Triadou attorneys’ fees of $60,228.27 and costs of $781.16. The fee award consisted of $21,950.78 for the 2018 Litco motion to compel papers, $29,336.99 for the 2019 sanctions filings, and $8,940.50 for the fee application. Magistrate Judge Katharine H. Parker entered the order on September 10, 2020.