Record $508 Million Job Bias Settlement Gets No Fee Enhancements

A 45-year-old sex discrimination case against a federal agency finally concluded after a judge declined to enhance compensation for the plaintiffs’ attorneys above the level to which the parties previously agreed.

The “in all respects extraordinary” lawsuit, per Judge Amit P. Mehta’s past opinions, was filed on Nov. 25, 1977 against the US Information Agency and became the “largest Title VII sex discrimination class action settlement in United States history.” It involved more than 1,000 women allegedly passed over for hiring or promotions at the agency. The last several years of the case have involved negotiations between the plaintiffs’ counsel and the US State Department, which absorbed relevant components of the now-defunct defendant.

The decision not to multiply the lodestar fees amount agreed to by the parties “should not be taken to diminish the resounding success Plaintiffs’ counsel achieved,” Mehta wrote on Mar. 31 for the US District Court for the District of Columbia. “That praise may be cold comfort. But this court can do no more.”

• The plaintiffs asked the court to determine a “superior attorney performance” multiplier and apply it to the $19 million base lodestar agreed upon by the parties, which the court declined to do because of insufficient evidence
• Attorney’s fees have been the last remaining issue in the case since the last of the $508 million settlement fund was distributed to class members in 2018
• The court previously rejected a pay enhancement request two years ago, when plaintiffs sought a $34 million payment on top of the over $26 million paid over the course of the case

Webster & Fredrickson PLLC; Rose Advocate for Civil Rights; Correia & Puth PLLC; Steptoe & Johnson LLP; and Heller, Huron, Chertkof & Salzman PLLC represent the class.

The case is Hartman v. Blinken, D.D.C., No. 1:77-cv-02019, 3/31/23.