Motion for leave to file a law firm billing rate compilation under seal is granted. The plaintiff wanted to submit a billing rate compilation in support of a motion to recover attorneys’ fees. The compilation, which had been prepared by Thomson Reuters, analyzed the billing rates of six DC-based law firms. The plaintiff alleged the compilation was a proprietary trade secret. The court agreed, finding that Thomson Reuters had compiled this billing information from non-public sources.
Waverly View Investors, LLC prevailed in a case against the government and requested recovery its attorneys’ fees. As part of its request for fees, Waverly moved to file a compilation of law firm billing rates under seal. The compilation, which was prepared by Thomson Reuters, reflected the billing rates from six DC-based law firms: Crowell & Moring, Akin Gump, Arent Fox, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, and Steptoe & Johnson.
Waverly claimed the analysis was confidential and propriety property of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters contracts with law firms to collect financial data, including billing rates. It then sells that information to other law firms, who must themselves agree to provide Thomson Reuters with financial data. Only firms that provide Thomson Reuters with financial information can access the data concerning other firms’ rates.
The government opposed the motion to seal, arguing that billing rate surveys were not really confidential trade secrets. Thomson Reuters’ compilations, the government argued, consisted of self-reported data and was available to anyone willing to pay the price.
While reasoning that it was a close call given the public’s right to access court documents, the court found that rate analysis was confidential commercial information. Thomson Reuters’ arrangement with law firms was sufficiently proprietary. Rather than gathering publicly available billing rates, Thomson Reuters had direct access to law firms’ billing systems. What’s more, the rate compilation was subject to a contractual pledge of confidentiality. Thus, the court was satisfied that the data compiled in the analysis was not in the public domain.
Waverly is represented by Jessica M. Held, Lawrence A. Vandyke, and Lucinda J. Bach of the Natural Resources Section of the Department of Justice’s Environment and & Natural Resources Division.
