A federal appeals panel was asked Friday to award nearly $73,000 in legal fees and costs as a sanction against a Chicago-area lawyer who submitted a "monstrosity" of a court brief in a case the presiding judges described as a "shameful waste of judicial resources."

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit last month said the lawyer, Jordan T. Hoffman, would be required to pay "reasonable" legal fees for letting a client file a brief that the judges called "bizarre" and "incoherent." In November, Judge Diane Sykes declared in a rare admonition: "Bad writing does not normally warrant sanctions, but we draw the line at gibberish."

Attorneys who represented the corporate defendants in the labor and employment case—the candy maker Mars Inc. and Kenco Logistics Services LLC, which managed a Mars warehouse in Illinois—on Friday filed declarations and invoices showing legal services in the case cost about $73,000.

Jody Moran, a Jackson Lewis P.C. shareholder in Chicago and lead counsel for Kenco, said the firm was seeking about $30,700 in fees and costs. Jackson Lewis said it billed at $265 an hour for partners and $235 for associates, for Kenco.

"This rate is substantially less than the normal billing rate for the attorneys assigned to the case," Moran told the appeals court. Moran said she typically bills at $640 an hour, and senior associate Julia Argentieri, who worked on the case with her, charges $370 per hour.

"Our rates are equal to or less than that of other lawyers in medium-to-large Chicago law firms with similar backgrounds, qualifications, practices and experiences," Moran wrote in a declaration. Jackson Lewis has about 900 lawyers in more than 50 offices across the country.

Kimberly Overbaugh of the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, firm Harmon & Davies was lead counsel for Mars. The firm is seeking about $42,700 in fees and costs, according to its filing Friday in the Seventh Circuit.

Hoffman was not immediately reached for comment Friday about the fee petitions.

The Seventh Circuit's rebuke of Hoffman came in an employment discrimination case. The trial and appellate courts concluded there was insufficient evidence to support liability for any alleged discrimination.

Filings in Hoffman's case fell "far below the reasonable standards of practice," the appeals court said in its November ruling. At oral argument, confronted over his briefing, Hoffman told the court he is a solo practitioner who tries "to get the help of … clients and whoever can provide help to [him]."

Diane Sykes Judge Diane Sykes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi / ALM

"The patently frivolous nature of this appeal isn't the only thing that troubles us," Sykes said in its ruling for Mars and Kenco. The "hopelessness" of the case didn't deter the plaintiff or Hoffman "from signing and submitting a bizarre appellate brief laden with assertions that have no basis in the record and arguments that have no basis in the law."

Hoffman apologized to the appeals court in November, telling the panel he'd made a "grave error in judgment" in agreeing to represent a friend, the plaintiff, in the case. Hoffman said his friend wrote and filed the brief under Hoffman's name.

"I realize again that these were all grave errors of judgment and I can only apologize to the court and promise that I will never allow this [to] occur again," Hoffman told the appeals panel. "I have suffered through the most embarrassing and stressful moments of my legal career and perhaps my life during the oral argument and after the publication of the court's opinion."

Hoffman continued: "My reputation has been tarnished at the highest level as a result of my actions that caused such a scathing opinion in this matter."

The appeals panel called Hoffman's acceptance of responsibility "appropriate," but the judges still concluded that sanctions were warranted.

"Judicial resources were needlessly consumed, and the defendants were put to the burden and expense of sorting through and defending against a patently frivolous appeal," the judges said in their order last month.