L.E.K. Consulting LLC v. Amicus Capital Partners, LLC

Background

L.E.K. Consulting LLC brought contract and quasi-contract claims against Amicus Capital Partners, LLC based on consulting services. Amicus did not respond to the complaint by the deadline, and the clerk issued a certificate of default. L.E.K. then sought a judgment based on Amicus’s default.

The parties later reported a settlement in principle. The settlement required Amicus to make a lump-sum payment by July 15, 2020, but Amicus did not fulfill its obligations. L.E.K. asked the court to reopen the case and enter a default judgment. At a later hearing, Amicus’s counsel stated that Amicus did not object to entry of a default judgment, but the parties disputed the proper damages amount.

In a prior order, the court determined that the settlement agreement supplied the relevant damages amount and ordered $475,000 in damages, with interest at 18% per year. Because the settlement agreement also allowed the party enforcing the judgment to recover attorneys’ fees and costs, the court requested briefing on those amounts. Amicus did not oppose L.E.K.’s request.

Attorneys’ Fees

The court applied the general rule that each side ordinarily pays its own attorneys’ fees, unless a statute or contract provides otherwise. It concluded that the settlement agreement allowed L.E.K. to recover reasonable fees and costs.

L.E.K.’s counsel requested fees for 22.5 hours of work at $600 per hour: 22.1 hours by Daniel Marx and 0.4 hours by William Fick. The court found the $600 hourly rate reasonable based on counsel’s experience, the quality of their submissions, the result they obtained, prevailing rates in the Southern District of New York, and Amicus’s failure to challenge the rates.

The court also accepted the requested 22.5 hours. Although some tasks might have been performed by a less senior attorney at a lower rate, the court declined to reduce the hours because the fee period was limited, the billing entries were conservative, and much of the work resulted from Amicus’s unsuccessful settlement efforts. The court therefore awarded $13,500 in attorneys’ fees.

Costs and Judgment

L.E.K. requested $226.60 for serving the default-judgment materials. The court found those costs reasonably connected to Amicus’s conduct and awarded the full amount.

The court granted L.E.K.’s motion for attorneys’ fees and costs. It ordered judgment against Amicus for $472,250 in damages, $84,688.39 in interest through the date of the order, continuing interest at 18% per year from that date forward, $13,500 in attorneys’ fees, and $226.60 in costs, for a total of $570,664.99. In L.E.K. Consulting LLC v. Amicus Capital Partners, LLC, Judge Katherine Polk Failla entered this order on September 14, 2021.