Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

The state of Texas was ordered to pay $6.8 million in legal fees and expenses for its defense of a controversial voter ID law, including $1.5 million to Dechert and $368,976 to Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.

The prevailing attorneys, who represented several plaintiffs including Democratic Congressman Marc Veasey, originally asked U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos to award $8.9 million in fees and expenses.

Wilmer took one of the largest cuts, nearly 65% from what it requested, after failing to provide details on the qualifications of its legal team, especially in regard to voting rights litigation, according to Ramos' order. Law firm partner Jonathan Paikin also failed to provide billing rates for the legal team, said Ramos, of the Southern District of Texas.

"The state has objected to much of the billing as duplicative, excessive, and vague," Ramos wrote. "Paikin filed a reply declaration that stands on its billing practices and complains that the request is modest, foregoing 'millions' of dollars. The court is not satisfied with the reasonableness of the original billing or its defense. Wilmer has not presented its individual attorneys' qualifications, rate, or time in a manner that allows the court to address them individually. For instance, there is no summary collating the billing by attorney or task."

Paikin said the law firm is proud of the work it contributed toward winning at trial and through and the appeal process.

"The WilmerHale team expended a significant amount of time and resources to this successful outcome and is pleased that the Court awarded $6.8 million to WilmerHale and the other plaintiffs that handled this case," he said.

Th firms filing requesting fees said it used the fee schedule used by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia and links off. While the filing said those rates were significantly below what the firm general charges, it does not go into detail per attorney.

Alejandro Garcia, deputy director of communications for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, said the state will appeal. Texas had asked that the award not exceed nearly $5 million.

"The district court's order is disappointing in light of Texas prevailing in the litigation upholding its common-sense voter ID law," Garcia said in a statement. "We plan on seeking appellate review of the court's award of attorney's fees in a case where the state won."

Ramos largely dismissed Texas' claim that it was the prevailing party in the litigation that has ping-ponged between the district court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court since 2014.

The underlying litigation involved claims that Texas photo identification law potentially disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of citizens. Ramos' order Wednesday says the ultimate conclusion was the Texas' law had racially discriminatory results in violation of the Voting Rights Act and that "plaintiffs were entitled to a remedy that would ameliorate its draconian limits."

The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed as moot after Texas lawmakers passed new voting legislation. That new law largely mirrored provisions of the court's order for interim relief, a footnote in Ramos' decision said.

Ramos's order also refused to reduce fees associated with handling the fee request, as Texas requested.

"The state has employed every possible attack on counsel's time and expenses and has made significant errors in its own arithmetic and method," Ramos wrote. "This approach has multiplied the hours that the parties and this court have had to expend in this effort—contrary to the Hensley admonition against turning a fee request into a second litigation."

Other law firms receiving awards for their work in the litigation include:

Campaign Legal Center: $793,357

Brazil & Dunn: $1,096,842

Derfner & Altman: $649,760

Baron: $130,658

Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights: $581,702

Brennan Center for Justice: $292,313

Texas NAACP: $68,337

Mexican American Legislative Caucus: $41,366

NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund: $445,928

Rolando L. Rios & Associates: $166,444

Texas RioGrande Legal Aid: $653,084