$2 million in lawyer's fees still up in the air in school tie-breaker case

Seattle Public Schools and the law firm involved in the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court case over school integration both found something to like in a ruling over whether the school district must pay roughly $2 million in attorneys fees.

U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Rothstein confirmed that the parent group that brought the case, Parents Involved in Community Schools, was the prevailing party, something the school district disputed. That was a necessary step for the law firm, Davis Wright Tremaine, to collect fees.

But the judge also raised the question of whether it would be unjust to require the school district to pay the fees.

Law firm Davis Wright Tremaine did not charge the parents for its work, but has argued it is still entitled to cover its costs from the school district since it won the case.

In Rothstein's order, filed Monday, she asked both sides to provide legal briefs on whether "special circumstances that exist that would render an award of fees unjust in this case."

Harry Korrell of Davis Wright Tremaine said he was optimistic the law firm will prevail.

"We are the prevailing party and the presumption is that the prevailing party recovers attorney's fees," he said.

The firm originally sought $1.8 million, he said, but will add the costs of work done in the year since then. Federal law usually allows for "reasonable" attorneys fees to be awarded in civil-rights cases. Parents had challenged Seattle Public Schools' use of race in assigning students to schools and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Seattle's racial tiebreaker violated the Constitution's right of equal protection.

Seattle Public Schools attorney Shannon McMinimee, however, said she read the judge's order as an indication that the court believes that attorneys fees might not be warranted in this case — and that the judge wants the law firm to convince her that they are.

Rothstein "has flipped the presumption in this case," McMinimee said.

Linda Shaw: 206-464-2359 or lshaw@seattletimes.com