Weeks

A jury found that Martin R. Greenstein, a partner in the law firm of Baker & McKenzie, sexually harassed his secretary, plaintiff Rena Weeks and awarded her $50,000 in compensatory damages from both Green-stein and Baker & McKenzie. The jury further awarded Weeks $225,000 in punitive damages from Greenstein and $6.9 million in punitive damages from Baker & McKenzie. The latter award was reduced to $3.5 million by the trial court. The court awarded Weeks $1,847,437.86 in attorney fees and expenses. This figure was calculated, in part, by fixing reasonable hourly fees for each legal professional representing Weeks, multiplying those figures by the number of hours reasonably devoted by the respective professional to the case, and multiplying that amount by a factor of 1.7.

We will affirm the judgment both as to the award of compensatory damages and as to the award of punitive damages. In so doing, we find, in part, that subdivision (a) of California’s punitive damages statute, Civil Code section 3294, states the general rule that punitive damages may be awarded only upon a showing that the defendant was guilty of oppression, fraud or malice. Subdivision (b), however,…