Loretta J. Brokeshoulder SCHWARZ, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES, Defendant-Appellee

This appeal requires us to consider the scope of a district court’s discretion to reduce the lodestar in a civil rights action for the time devoted to dismissed claims that the court found unrelated to a successful claim. We must also decide whether a reasonable attorney’s fee under 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(k) must be calculated by reference to the rates generally charged by attorneys in the area where the plaintiffs counsel practices or where a suit that is subsequently transferred was originally filed, instead of by reference to the local forum.

Loretta J. Brokeshoulder Schwarz appeals the amount of attorney’s fees awarded at the end of a circuitous journey to Fredrie J. Gross, her lead counsel. She originally brought a five-count employment discrimination action against the Secretary of Health and Human Services in the District of Columbia. It was quickly transferred to Phoenix because the allegations had to do with misconduct by personnel officials in the Phoenix office of the Indian Health Service and the relief sought was retroactive appointment to the position of Phoenix Area Financial Manager. A couple of years, extensive discovery and numerous motions later, the action wound…