Hourly Rates Lowered, Excessive Time Discounted, and Multiplier Reduced.
In St. Louis Police Retirement Systems v. Severson, Case No. 4:12-cv-05086-YGR (N.D. Cal. Aug. 11, 2014) (Doc. No. 127), U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers confronted Plaintiffs’ request for recoupment of attorney’s fees and costs following a settlement in a derivative action against Abaxis, Inc., a medical and veterinary diagnostic systems provider. (The suit accused officers of exceeding option issuance “caps” approved by shareholders, netting claimed ill-gotten profits from cashing out unauthorized options. The settlement provided for increased equity compensation oversight and disclosure of additional information to shareholders.) Plaintiffs requested fees of around $1.6 million and costs of about $51,200.
District Judge Gonzalez Rogers, instead, awarded approximately $543,000 in fees and $36,400 in costs, for an exact total award of $579,429.53.
She reasoned that the case did not involve extraordinary risk or complexity, that the case was primarily “won” at the preliminary injunction stage, and that no discovery was undertaken by Plaintiffs. The district court decreased the requested hourly rates to coincide with rates found commensurate in CEB’s survey “High-Level Data” Table for the San Francisco area. She finally reduced the 2.83 requested multiplier to an awarded 1.5 positive enhancement.