NY Judge Denies Firm's Bid
 for "Fees on Fees" New York Lawyer

By Anthony Lin
New York Lawyer
New York Law Journal
December 6, 2006

A Soho landlord may recover more than $300,000 in attorney's fees from a tenant who violated a settlement but the landlord is not entitled to the additional legal fees incurred in that recovery.

MTM associates was awarded attorney's fees following a two-year legal battle with the operators of the former Casa La Femme restaurant, who had backed out of an agreement to vacate its Wooster Street location by July 2003.

In awarding $309,613 in attorney's fees, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman, in MTM Associates v. Soho Oasis, 111172/04, rejected the tenants' argument that the rates charged were unreasonable, given that landlord's counsel had merely "cut and paste" some of their documents.

The judge said the landlord's lawyers from Reed Smith had suitably lowered the hours billed when court filings were repetitive and their hourly rates were reasonable for attorneys of their experience. But the judge denied MTM attorney's fees for its effort to recover attorney's fees, noting that such "fees on fees" could only be awarded pursuant to statute or an agreement.

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