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Earthjustice's Biop Bill Nearly $1 Million by Bill Rudolph NW Fishletter, June 14, 2007

Litigants in the never-ending BiOp litigation (NWF v. NMFS) have reached agreement over fees and costs due environmental attorneys for work from 2000 through Nov. 2004, a sum that adds up to $950,000.

Federal attorneys agreed to the May 24 stipulation after losing two big BiOp cases in federal court over the past four years.

The sum is nearly the same as the figure environmental attorneys asked for in a January 2005 filing that billed Earthjustice attorney Todd True's 1,547 hours at $325/hr, adding up to more than $500,000 for his work alone. His cohort, Steve Mashuda, billed $366,000, and Dan Rohlf of the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center in Portland, billed only about $33,000.

That filing said the 3,561 billable hours "reflects a reduction of at least 1,800 hours in the exercise of billing judgment and in consideration of other factors from the total number of hours actually spent on the various aspects of the case by NWF's counsel." -