Objectively intelligent.

[LessinSF]

Bezos Scores $218K Fees After 'Overstaffed' Legal Team's Win
By Craig Clough

Law360 (March 5, 2021, 11:01 PM EST) -- A California judge granted Jeff Bezos' request for attorney fees Friday after defeating a defamation suit by his girlfriend's brother over a phone hacking incident, but signed off on just $218,000 of the $1.68 million Bezos requested, finding his team was "overstaffed" with seven partners and 11 associates from two firms.

During a phone hearing, Superior Court Judge John P. Doyle told William A. Isaacson of Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP that he did not question his integrity or that his efforts defending Amazon.com Inc. founder Bezos — the world's richest man — weren't reasonable, but that he would "be remiss" to grant the full request.

The judge said in a tentative ruling issued before the hearing that Bezos' team, which also included attorneys from Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, was "overstaffed," with seven partners and 11 associates for a total of 2,077.7 billed hours on a case won on an anti-SLAPP motion. As outlined in the tentative ruling, the judge ultimately approved fees for two partners and three associates for a total of 280 hours while keeping hourly rates roughly where they were requested at $549 to $1,125 per hour.

"If my concept here violates some kind of legal standard that governs on fees motions, I will stand humbly corrected down the road," the judge told Isaacson. "But I think I'd be remiss to award you $1.7 million fees on [this] motion. I'd think I'd be remiss, and that has nothing to do with your integrity or skill level or good intentions. Nobody can lay a glove on you, Mr. Isaacson."

Michael Sanchez, the brother of Bezos' girlfriend, media personality Lauren Sanchez, told the judge in a motion that the fee request should be denied in full based on the excessive amount, but if any fees were awarded it should be around $86,000.

"We argued that the fees should be negated completely based on the sort of obscenity of the request," Thomas D. Warren of Warren Terzian LLP, who represents Michael Sanchez, told the judge.

Michael Sanchez's lawsuit, filed in January 2020, accused Bezos and his investigator Gavin de Becker of planting false information with media outlets painting Michael Sanchez as the source of sexually charged text exchanges between his sister and Bezos, contributing to Bezos' separation from his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott.

The lawsuit also alleged Bezos and de Becker "peddled rumors to reporters that Mr. Sanchez was involved in a conservative conspiracy with high-profile political operatives, including Roger Stone and Carter Page, and the Saudi government to take down Mr. Bezos."

Sanchez wanted the court to order Bezos and de Becker to issue statements correcting their alleged lies about him. He sought unspecified damages as well as attorney fees and costs.

After news of Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's affair broke in 2019, the Amazon.com Inc. founder lashed out at the National Enquirer, penning a February 2019 blog post in which he shared emails purportedly written by Dylan Howard and Jon Fine, the chief content officer and deputy general counsel, respectively, of the tabloid's publisher, American Media Inc.

Bezos claimed the messages showed "blackmail and extortion" in retaliation for his investigation into how the tabloid obtained the explicit photos and text messages he had exchanged with Lauren Sanchez. The allegations never materialized into legal action.

Judge Doyle in November granted Bezos' and de Becker's anti-SLAPP motion and threw Michael Sanchez's lawsuit out. Bezos and de Becker said they didn't finger Michael Sanchez, even though he was indeed the source of the messages.

Bezos and de Becker pointed out in their motion that Michael Sanchez was named as the source of the text exchanges by the National Enquirer, one of the tabloids that got the scoop.

California's anti-SLAPP, or strategic lawsuit against public participation, statute stops lawsuits intended to censor or silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal fight until they abandon their criticism.

During Friday's hearing, Warren noted that Bezos' team had three partners on the phone call with the judge while his firm staffed the entire case with one partner and one associate. He also questioned the costs outlined by Bezos' team, which were requested and approved at $36,019.26.

Warren said most of the costs were for photocopies and legal research.

"The last time I checked I wasn't charging my clients for photocopies anymore, since its 2021," Warren said.

Isaacson told the judge he thought he was making a legal error and that "what the court should be doing is looking at if what we have done is reasonable under these circumstances."

The judge interrupted him and said, "I think we're talking about two different types of reasonable. Maybe I'm wrong."

Sanchez is represented by Thomas D. Warren of Warren Terzian LLP.

Bezos and de Becker are represented by William A. Isaacson and Julia Tarver Mason Wood of Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP, and Edward H. Takashima of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP.

The case is Sanchez v. Bezos et al., case number 20STCV04212, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles.

--Additional reporting by Lauren Berg. Editing by Michael Watanabe.