Marriott, Ritz Carlton Workers’ Attorneys Win Fees in Wage Suit

Lawyers for workers who recently settled a wage suit against Marriott International Inc. and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. secured slightly more than half of their requested attorneys’ fees and costs after a federal judge questioned the firm’s rates and hours.

Class counsel Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky LLP sought a “simply unreasonable” $295,000 in attorneys’ fees and court costs, but the firm will get approximately $153,000 after the US District Court for the Southern District of New York chided it for “duplicative hours” and other issues.

• The attorneys last year landed a $445,000 settlement for the hotel dining workers, who said the companies kept fees customers thought were headed for worker pockets
• “The Court is simply unable to fathom how it could be prudent to staff forty-one (41) timekeepers for this litigation,” Judge Philip M. Halpern said March 10
• The workers’ attorneys spent almost 900 hours on the case, “which the Court finds to be unreasonable in and of itself,” according to the opinion

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP represents the companies.

The case is Ramirez v. Marriott Int’l Inc., 2023 BL 79207, S.D.N.Y., No. 7:20-cv-02397, fees awarded 3/10/23.