After huge verdict, lawyers' payday arrives

Attorneys representing a man who won most of a $10 billion verdict after a 20-year dispute with his brother over a Southern California real estate empire were awarded more than $11 million in attorney fees.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Susan Bryant-Deason awarded more than $7 million to Steven R. Friedman and Michael E. Friedman of Friedman2 LLP, who represented plaintiff Shashikant "Shashi" Jogani. The balance covered fees incurred by Alyssa Klausner and attorneys with Russ, August & Kabat; Horvitz & Levy LLP; Krane & Smith APC; Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP; Reed Smith LLP and Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP.

Defendant Haresh Jogani's attorneys with Larson LLP argued that the plaintiff's requested fees must be reduced because some of his attorneys engaged in block billing.

"The block billed entries of plaintiff's former counsel at Russ August & Kabat, Horvitz & Levy, Krane & Smith, Alyssa Klausner, Reed Smith, and Norton Rose Fulbright should be deducted from plaintiff's fee request. The practice of block billing is disfavored in California," Rick L. Richmond wrote in Haresh Jogani's opposition to Shashikant Jogani's motion for attorney fees.

He said Christian Research Inst., 165 Cal. App. 4th at 1325-26 holds that block billing "exacerbates the vagueness" of fee requests.

"Where a party seeks to recover block billed fees, the 'trial court should exercise discretion in assigning a reasonable percentage to the entries, or simply cast them aside,'" Richmond continued, quoting from Bell v. Vista Unified Sch. Dist. (2000) 82 Cal.App.4th 672, 689.

Bryant-Deason disagreed in some instances.

"While Ms. Klausner engaged in block billing, the descriptions provided for each block sufficiently apprises the court about the tasks that were conducted," the judge wrote. "Therefore, in this instance, the 20% reduction is not warranted, and the usage of block-billing is not objectionable."

Bryant-Deason declined to reduce Horvitz & Levy's fees by 20% because the tasks were grouped into blocks of time with sufficient descriptions of the work conducted and redactions were minimal. She declined to award more than $24,000 for fees incurred by Akin Gump for a jury trial writ because the plaintiff attested he was unable to locate the invoices.

Fees for Russ August & Kabat's block-billed entries that were heavily redacted were reduced by 20%.

Richmond declined to comment.

The Friedmans have likened their $10 billion victory to the biblical battle between David and Goliath.

Shashi accused his brother, Haresh Jogani, of pushing him out of a real estate partnership in Southern California worth billions of dollars. Shashi said he had an oral agreement with his four brothers to purchase properties in California following the collapse of the real estate market and the Northridge earthquake. Jogani v. Jogani et al., BC290553 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Feb. 18, 2003).

The trial stretched over five months. There were dozens of witnesses, and a last-minute motion by the defendant to disqualify Bryant-Deason for alleged judicial misconduct and racism. The jury ruled against Haresh in February and awarded Shashi 50% of the real estate empire at issue, worth an estimated $5 billion to $6 billion, according to the Friedmans. The jurors also awarded Shashi nearly $1.8 billion in cash and found Haresh engaged in malice, fraud and oppression, which led to $3 billion in punitive damages.

"The litigation was very difficult and very expensive," Michael E. Friedman said on Tuesday. "One thing the judge said - it was Steve and I doing it against 15 attorneys. That is why she had no problem awarding our fees."