(Billable Hours is Reuters' weekly report on lawyers and money. Please send tips or suggestions to [email protected].)
Top U.S. appellate lawyer Neal Katyal is set to square off against Ford Motor Company and his former law firm in a fight over $100 million in allegedly fabricated attorney billing records.
Ford is trying to revive a lawsuit it filed against attorneys from Los Angeles-based Knight Law Group who allegedly defrauded the automaker in a years-long overbilling scheme. Ford brought on Hogan Lovells Cadwalader – Katyal's longtime firm before the star litigator joined Milbank last year – to press its case at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Leading the Hogan Lovells team for Ford, which filed its opening brief on Monday, is Jessica Ellsworth, who has represented Google in litigation over its Play store and Danco Laboratories in cases surrounding its abortion drug mifepristone.
Katyal, a former acting U.S. solicitor general under Democratic President Barack Obama, began defending Knight Law Group last year, joining a defense lineup that includes Foley & Lardner, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and Williams & Connolly. Katyal said he is planning to lead the appeal.
Ford alleges the Knight firm defrauded carmakers by submitting false and inflated fee applications and demands under California's Lemon Law, the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, which lets lawyers collect legal fees based on reasonably incurred time spent representing vehicle owners.
The company's lawsuit said there were "numerous" alleged instances of lawyers billing more than 24 hours in a day. One Knight partner billed for more than 57 hours of work on one day, the carmaker alleged.
A federal judge dismissed Ford's case in November and again in March, finding that the lawyers were immune under a legal doctrine known as Noerr-Pennington, which stems from the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protection of the right to petition the government.
Ford counsel Doug Lampe said in a statement that if the district court ruling is allowed to stand, "it means that there is no civil remedy when lawyers lie, cheat and steal as long as such behavior is done in furtherance of litigation."
Katyal and other attorneys representing Knight Law attorneys had no comment on Ford's appellate brief.
A spokesperson for Hogan Lovells Cadwalader declined to comment. Lampe said in a statement that the automaker has a long-term relationship with Hogan Lovells, which has represented the company in dozens of appeals.
The Knight Law Group has argued that Ford's lawsuit is an effort "to chill and punish its litigation adversaries — law firms, lawyers, and staff who represent consumers harmed by Ford's defective vehicles and fraudulent conduct."
The case is at least one of 20 such actions Ford and other major companies have filed invoking civil RICO provisions against lawyers in U.S. federal courts over the last two years. Civil plaintiffs can have their damages tripled under RICO; Ford said it was seeking more than $100 million.
--Quinn Emanuel fights disqualification in CoStar case
Quinn Emanuel is appealing a federal judge's order that disqualified the law firm from representing data provider Commercial Real Estate Exchange (CREXi) in a sprawling copyright and antitrust case in California.
Quinn, in a petition to the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said its prior work for commercial real estate data provider CoStar was unrelated to its current representation of CREXi. The firm was defending CREXi against copyright claims lodged by CoStar while pursuing antitrust counterclaims against the rival. CoStar accuses CREXi of deliberately copying tens of thousands of CoStar photos of real estate properties. CREXi claims CoStar has locked brokers into using its data platforms.
Both companies have denied any wrongdoing. Quinn Emanuel declined to comment.
The firm's legal team, including litigator Alex Spiro, told the appeals court that no client confidences were at risk in the case and that California law does not impose automatic firm-wide disqualification when a law firm is adverse to a former client in a case that isn't substantially related. "CREXi will suffer irreversible prejudice should it be deprived of its chosen trial counsel," the firm argued.
--Latham lands US Supreme Court contract for California city
Law firm Latham & Watkins could earn up to $700,000 for representing the City of Santa Maria, California, in a case at the U.S. Supreme Court, according to contract records reviewed by Reuters.
Latham's team, led by former U.S. solicitor general Gregory Garre, will charge $250,000 to try to convince the justices to take the city's case. The city in its petition, filed last month, asked the court to revive its bid to defeat a police excessive force lawsuit. A federal appeals court earlier allowed the case to move forward.
Latham said its fee would grow to up to $700,000 if the justices agree to take up the dispute on the merits. The firm said that, in general, its lawyers currently charge between $945 and $3,050 an hour.
Local and state governments often hire outside lawyers to handle appellate work, and it's common for firms to provide public clients a discount. Latham did not immediately respond to a request for comment about its fees for Santa Maria.
Also on Billable Hours' radar this week…
--Reuters columnist Sara Randazzo digs into office romance policies at major law firms after a kiss between two Wachtell attorneys went viral online.
--President Donald Trump's legal team at DLA Piper is fighting a bid for thousands of dollars in legal fees from groups that challenged his since-dismissed lawsuit against the IRS.
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