Little Rock School et al v. Pulaski Cty School et al

Filing 5780

ORDER: Motion for fees and costs, 5754 , partly granted and partly denied. Motion to amend, 5762 , granted. Motion to strike, 5765 , denied. Signed by Chief Judge D. P. Marshall Jr. on 1/28/2022. (jak)

Case 4:82-cv-00866-DPM Document 5780 Filed 01/28/22 Page 1 of 8

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS
CENTRAL DIVISION

LITTLE ROCK SCHOOL DISTRICT, et al.

PLAINTIFFS

No. 4:82-cv-866-DPM
PULASKI COUNTY SPECIAL SCHOOL
DISTRICT, JACKSONVILLF/NORTH
PULASKI SCHOOL DISTRICT, et al.

DEFENDANTS

EMILY McCLENDON, TAMARA EACKLES,
VALERIE ST ALLIN GS, TIFFANY ELLIS,
and LINDA MORGAN

INTERVEN ORS

ORDER

The Pulaski County Special School District and the McClendon
Intervenors tried to resolve the attorney's fees issue, as the Court
requested, but were unable to do so. The Court appreciates those
efforts.

(The Court has ignored the snippets of the parties'

negotiations that made it into the record.)

The Intervenors have

amended their fee motion twice, which has complicated the Court's
review. PCSSD's motion to strike those amended papers, however, is
denied. The District's helpful charts and comprehensive analysis of
the original request have helped the Court sort the updated materials.
Out-of-pocket

expenses

are

undisputed.

The

Court

directs

Case 4:82-cv-00866-DPM Document 5780 Filed 01/28/22 Page 2 of 8

reimbursement of the $5,968.75 incurred. The Court also awards a
reasonable attorney's fee of $319,129.38. The total is $325,098.13.
As the District requests, and to reduce the effect on PCSSD's
operating funds, the Court orders payment in twelve monthly
installments.

Intervenors have not objected to this arrangement.

PCSSD must make the first payment by 15 February 2022.
Intervenors' motion, as amended, seeks approximately $600,000
for monitoring and litigation connected with PCSSD between 2017
and 2021. Right at $400,000 of this is for lawyers' work and the rest is
for paralegal and monitor work. The requested hourly rates range
from $450 to $70.00. In fixing a fee, the Court must start with the
request, then make adjustments, taking into account the particulars in
this part of this long-running case. Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424,
433-40 (1983); Little Rock Sch. Dist. v. Arkansas, 674 F.3d 990, 994-99
(8th Cir. 2012).
The requested hourly rates are too high in the circumstances.
The Court has awarded fees against the Jacksonville North Pulaski
School District for work done by Intervenors during 2017 and 2018.

Doc. 5507 at 2-5. Fairness requires equal treatment. But, much of the
work involving PCSSD was done between 2019 and 2021. The Court
can draw on its own experience about hourly rates in the Eastern
District for this kind of work; it does not need affidavits from local
lawyers. Hourly rates have increased in recent years. To reflect that
-2-

Case 4:82-cv-00866-DPM Document 5780 Filed 01/28/22 Page 3 of 8

circumstance, the Court will use blended rates. These embody some
increases, but also the fact that earlier PCSSD-related work should be
compensated at the rates used for JNPSD-related work for the same
period. These blended hourly rates are:
John W. Walker

$360

Austin Porter Jr.

$310

Robert Pressman

$310

Joy Springer

$110

Charles Bolden

$80

Marva Smith

$80

The next issue is the amount of time reasonably spent. PCSSD' s
careful assessment and charts are particularly helpful here. It makes
good sense to divide the evaluation into monitoring and litigation.
First, monitoring.

Intervenors are the prevailing party in the

case as a whole, and they' re entitled to fees for reasonable monitoring
of PCSSD' s compliance in the Plan 2000 areas that remained under
Court supervision. Cody v. Hillard, 304 F.3d 767, 773-74 (8th Cir. 2002).
PCSSD acknowledges all this. And before Intervenors' amendments,
PCSSD expressed a willingness to pay almost all the monitoringrelated fees requested at the previously awarded hourly rates. Doc.
5761 at 8-11. Two things have changed. First, the Court has nudged

the hourly rates up. Second, Intervenors' amendments add more than

-3-

Case 4:82-cv-00866-DPM Document 5780 Filed 01/28/22 Page 4 of 8

$60,000 for work done by the three monitors. So, the Court takes this
issue as agreed in principle and disputed in details.
The Court awards all of counsel's time spent in monitoring. The
lawyers investigated and ventilated the Mills/Robinson issues, and
other PCSSD matters, as needed. They also participated in the Courtordered monthly meetings and in hearings.
The monitoring fees sought for work by Springer, Bolden, and
Smith must be reduced to achieve a reasonable award. The Court
starts at the end with the additional fees requested in the two
amendments.
Springer's additional fifty-odd hours are fine, subject to a caveat
explained below.

Much of Bolden's additional time is for his

participation in Dr. Charles W. Donaldson Scholars Academy events
and activities.

As the Court explained in 2019 in its Order about

JNPSD-related fees, Donaldson Scholars work is commendable but
not fully compensable as monitoring of Plan 2000 compliance. Doc.
5507 at 4. Plus, as PCSSD noted in response to the original motion,
assistance to students in general and to§ 504 students in particular, is
likewise laudable but not compensable monitoring work. The Court
approves one hundred hours of the additional four-hundred-plus
hours requested for Bolden' s work. Unlike for Bolden, Intervenors
have not (insofar as the Court can find) submitted any timesheets for
the approximately four hundred hours of additional time requested
-4-

Case 4:82-cv-00866-DPM Document 5780 Filed 01/28/22 Page 5 of 8

for Smith's work. There is a summary, which provides monthly and
annual totals for 2017 and 2018. Doc. 5764-1 at 1-4. Nearly seven years
the

ago,

Court

highlighted

the

contemporaneous time records.

usefulness

of

detailed

and

Doc. 5095 at 7. Intervenors have

almost always provided them since. Smith, for example, prepared
timesheets starting in December 2018. Doc. 5754-4 at 4-7. It is clear
from the record as a whole, however, that Smith spent some time
before then on core monitoring. The Court therefore approves fifty
additional hours for Smith.
The original request for monitor's fees is approved with a tenpercent reduction across the board. That reduction accounts for the
thread

of

non-monitoring

work-mostly

§

504

student/ parent assistance - throughout the timesheets.

help

and

(This is the

caveat about Springer's fees.) As PCSSD agrees, the true monitoring
work by Springer, Bolden, and Smith is compensable. Cody, 304 F.3d
at 773-74.
Next, litigation-related fees.

What is a reasonable fee for the

lawyers' and paralegal' s work during the recent litigation about
whether PCSSD was unitary in discipline, facilities,

student

achievement, and monitoring? All the lawyers, including Intervenors'
counsel, worked hard getting the case ready and presenting it well
during the three-week bench trial held in July 2020. Ms. Springer did
too. The issues were complicated. The Court's comprehensive May

-5-

Case 4:82-cv-00866-DPM Document 5780 Filed 01/28/22 Page 6 of 8

2021 Order owes much to counsel's efforts. Intervenors press that
they were duty bound to oppose PCSSD' s request for unitary status
on all issues, and therefore seek payment for all their work, even
though they prevailed in one of four areas.

PCSSD responds that

success carries the most weight under precedent, and Intervenors'
success was limited, which should be reflected in the fee award.
Both sides are right in some measure.

Intervenors prevailed

only on facilities. The result will be approximately nineteen million
dollars of further improvements at Mills High School. This is a signal
achievement. A fee award of 25 % of the amount sought would reflect
these results.

Having considered the matter further, however, the

Court is not persuaded that such an award would be the most
reasonable one.

The issues were somewhat intertwined.

Though

student achievement and discipline were focal points at the trial, the
Mills High School/Robinson Middle School facilities issues were focal
points of earlier hearings, many filings, and all the school tours. This
effort spanned several years. The Court disagrees with Intervenors
that they had to oppose unitary status in all four areas.

But,

thoughtful people of good will disagreed about the faithfulness of
PCSSD' s efforts to eliminate the vestiges of segregation to the extent
practicable in these areas. That disagreement needed to be explored
through evidence and decided.

The public interest was served by

putting all the facts on the record so the Court could apply the
-6-

Case 4:82-cv-00866-DPM Document 5780 Filed 01/28/22 Page 7 of 8

governing law to those facts. In this sense, a trial was necessary. And
there is a timing issue. The fees look back across several years' work,
and it will be another year until Intervenors are paid in full.

All

material things considered, the Court awards Intervenors 40% of the
time their lawyers and paralegal spent litigating the PCSSD unitary
status issues.
The Addendum summarizes the Court's rulings.

*

*

*

Motion for fees and costs, Doc. 5754, partly granted and partly
denied. Motion to amend, Doc. 5762, granted. Motion to strike, Doc.
5765, denied.

So Ordered.
D.P. Marshall Jr.
United States District Judge

-7-

Case 4:82-cv-00866-DPM Document 5780 Filed 01/28/22 Page 8 of 8

Addendum

John Walker
Robert Pressman
Austin Porter Jr.
Joy Springer
Charles Bolden
Marva Smith

Monitoring
Monitoring
Monitoring
Monitoring
Monitoring
Monitoring

Original Hours
Claimed
173.88
187.81
49.25
420.66
149.75
148.90

Robert Pressman
Austin Porter Jr.
Joy Springer

Litigation
Litigation
Litigation

371.19
316.80
423.30

TOTAL

Amended Hours
Approved

52.12
100
50

Total Hours
Awarded
173.88
187.81
49.25
472.78
249.75
198.90

Approved
Rate
$360
$310
$310
$110
$80
$80

371.19
316.80
423.30

$310
$310
$110

Subtotal
$62,596.80
$58,221.10
$15,267.50
$52,005.80
$19,980.00
$15,912.00

Percentage
Approved
100%
100%
100%
90%
90%
90%

Final
Award
$62,596.80
$58,221.10
$15,267.50
$46,805.22
$17,982.00
$14,320.80

$115,068.90
$98,208.00
$46,563.00

40%
40%
40%

$46,027.56
$39,283.20
$18,625.20
$319,129.38