Does this court believe that a reasonable attorneys fee should include paralegal fees?

3. According to this court, how is a reasonable at- 5. Does this court believe that a reasonable attor- torney's fee calculated? ney's fee should include paralegal fees? . How does the public benefit from allowing paralegals to be billed at market rates? Brennan, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is the attorney's fee aftermath of major school part-time), and recent law graduates in this litiga- desegregation litigation in Kansas City, Missouri. We tion. The court awarded fees for their work based on are hearing this case to decide] should the fee award Kansas City market rates for those categories. As in compensate the work of paralegals and law clerks by the case of the attorneys, it used current rather than applying the market rate for their work? historic market rates in order to compensate for the, delay in payment. It therefore awarded fees based on hourly rates of $35 for law clerks, $40 for paralegals, This litigation began in 1977 as a suit by the Kan- and $50 for recent law graduates. [. . .] sas City Missouri School District (KCMSD), the school board, and the children of two school board members, against the State of Missouri and other Missouri's second contention is that the District defendants. The plaintiffs alleged that the State, sur- Court erred in compensating the work of law clerks rounding school districts, and various federal agencies and paralegals (hereinafter collectively "paralegals") at had caused and perpetuated a system of racial segre the market rates for their services, rather than at their gation in the schools of the Kansas City metropolitan cost to the attorney. While Missouri agrees that com- area. . . . After lengthy proceedings, including a trial pensation for the cost of these personnel should be in- that lasted 71/2 months during 1983 and 1984, the Dis- cluded in the fee award, it suggests that an hourly rate trict Court found the State of Missouri and KCMSD of $15-which it argued below corresponded to their liable. . . . It ordered various intradistrict remedies, to salaries, benefits, and overhead-would be appropri- be paid for by the State and KCMSD, including $260 ate, rather than the market rates of $35 to $50. Ac- million in capital improvements and a magnet-school cording to Missouri, $ 1988 does not authorize billing plan costing over $200 million. paralegals' hours at market rates, and doing so pro- The plaintiff class has been represented, since duces a "windfall" for the attorney. 1979, by Kansas City lawyer Arthur Benson and, since We begin with the statutory language, which 1982, by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational provides simply for "a reasonable attorney's fee as part Fund, Inc. (LDF). Benson and the LDF requested at- of the costs." Clearly, a "reasonable attorney's fee' torney's fees under the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees cannot have been meant to compensate only work Awards Act of 1976, 42 U.S.C. $ 1988. Benson and" performed personally by members of the bar. Rather, his associates had devoted 10,875 attorney hours to the term must refer to a reasonable fee for the work the litigation, as well as 8, 108 hours of paralegal and product of an attorney. law clerk time. For the LDF, the corresponding fig- ures were 10,854 hours for attorneys and 15,517 hours Thus, the fee must take into account the work for paralegals and law clerks. Their fee applications not only of attorneys but also of secretaries, messen- deleted from these totals 3,628 attorney hours and gers, librarians, janitors, and others whose labor con- 7,046 paralegal hours allocable to unsuccessful claims tributes to the work product for which an attorney against the suburban school districts. With additions bills her client; and it also must take account of other for postjudgment monitoring and for preparation of expenses and profit. The parties have suggested no the fee application, the District Court awarded Ben- reason why the work of paralegals should not be sim- son a total of approximately $1.7 million and the LDF ilarly compensated, nor can we think of any. We thus $2.3 million. . take as our starting point the self-evident proposition that the "reasonable attorney's fee" provided for by Both Benson and the LDF employed numerous statute should compensate the work of paralegals, as paralegals, law clerks (generally law students working well as that of attorneys. (continued